No respite from price hike

A scene from the Karwan Bazar kitchen market. PHOTO: STAR

Middle class people in the city are struggling to cope with the latest hike in the prices of some essential commodities like sugar, edible oil and milk powder ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.

The price of packed edible oil like soybean rose to Tk 55-56 a litre from Tk 51-52 a month ago while sugar price soared to Tk 48-50 a kg from Tk 36-38 six weeks ago. The price of a 500g packet of milk powder was around Tk 135 early last month and now it rose to Tk 140.

"I can restrict the consumption of milk and sugar but not edible oil," said a housewife at Moghbazar. "We are helpless as the prices of essentials are on a constant rise."

Retailers said the prices of these commodities have risen due to increased wholesale prices while the wholesalers attributed the price hike to delayed supplies and decreased imports.

The wholesalers at Karwan Bazar said the purchasing costs of sugar, edible oil and milk powder have increased over the last few weeks due to scarce supply caused by low import.

"Supply of these commodities is inadequate to meet the high demand," said a wholesale trader. "Import has declined due to the persisting high price of dollar," he explained.

Small traders usually buy theses commodities from the wholesalers in Karwan Bazar. Their supplies come from the importers and distributors based in city's Moulavibazar.

"Our selling prices depend on how much we buy from our suppliers," said a small trader in Moghbazar. He said the wholesale price of almost every brand of milk powder such as Milk Vita, Diploma and Dano has increased that pushed up the retail prices.

The wholesalers in Karwan Bazar said that a 50-kg sack of sugar cost Tk 1,850 over a month ago whereas in the current month it costs Tk 2,250.

The increased prices of sugar and edible oil have in turn led to the price hike of condensed milk that contains sugar and palm oil. The wholesale price of a 48-can carton of condensed milk was Tk 1,295 last month whereas it is now selling at Tk 1,400.

Bashir Uddin, the proprietor of Bashir Traders and Borhan Traders, a large-scale distributor of powdered milk in Moulavibazar, said powdered milk is imported from Europe and Australia and the import price has increased due to the high dollar price.

"The price of skimmed milk is the same as before but a carton of full-cream milk that weighs 12kg now costs Tk 3,550 which was Tk 3,500 last month," he added.

Delwar Hossain, vice president of Bangladesh Wholesale Edible Oil Merchants Association and joint secretary of Wholesale Sugar Merchants Association, said prices of such commodities depend on the whole process of demand and supply, import duties and dollar price.

According to him, the local production of sugar is too inadequate to meet the domestic demand due to which sugar is imported from Brazil and Thailand. But the dollar price hike and high import duty have led to a price hike of sugar imported from international market.

Delwar said the supply of sugar in the local market would increase if the government reduces the import duty, now fixed at as high as 73.5 percent. Sufficient supply in the market to meet the local demand would ensure price stability, he added.

About the price hike of soybean oil, he said its import price was Tk 1,700 per maund a month ago but in the beginning of this month, it rose to Tk 1,850 because the scarce supply. The price is now getting stable with supplies coming from abroad, he added.