Rice prices soar in northern districts
Rice prices have marked an unusual rise in Dinajpur, Joypurhat and Naogaon, the districts well-known for producing a variety of rice, during the last one week.
The wholesalers and rice millers have attributed the situation to drastic fall in husking of paddy at rice mills due to unavailability of sunlight during the severe cold wave coupled with dense fog.
Due to the adverse weather, it takes much longer period to prepare a chatal for processing paddy into rice, they said.
The price of coarse rice increased by Tk 100 to 120 per 50kg sack while that of fine rice including miniket and pyjam increased by Tk 250 to 300 per sack in the retail markets of the three districts, said market sources.
During a visit to different rice markets in Dinajpur, the correspondent found that the coarse rice is selling at Tk 24 to 25 while it was Tk 22 just a week ago. Besides, price of BR-28 has gone up by Tk 4 per kg.
Miniket and pyjam are selling at Tk 42 a kg while it was Tk 36 last week, said traders at local retail and wholesale markets in Dinajpur.
However, the price of aromatic rice like kathari came down to Tk 65 a kg from Tk 90 around a week ago, they said.
"Price of a 50kg sack of coarse rice Nepali Sharna jumped to Tk 1300 from Tk 1150 in a week as the millers suddenly increased the price," said Md Mosaraf Hossain, a retail rice seller of Bahadur Bazar in Dinajpur municipality.
Reza Humayun Farukh Chowdhury, owner of an automatic rice mill in Dinajpur, said the rice market of Dinajpur and other major rice producing districts like Joypurhat and Naogaon saw a price rise as the millers could not produce enough rice due to adverse weather during the last few days.
"However, the situation is improving as the sunny days are back. Now the rice prices are likely to fall," he added.
Several retailers, however, alleged that the husking mill owners often raises the prices of different kings of rice intentionally.
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