Onion price shoots up amid panic buying
The Dhaka city dwellers continued to throng grocery stores, super shops and kitchen markets yesterday amid looming threat of coronavirus, causing a hike in prices of essential commodities.
Visiting several markets, this correspondent found most of the shoppers were purchasing goods more than their necessities.
Besides, prices of most of the essential commodities -- rice, onion, potato and lentils -- soared from Tk 5 to Tk 40 per kilogramme.
At places, the crowd was so high that they had to form long queues and wait for getting a chance of shopping.
Wasiqur Rahman, a shopper in Shukrabad area, said, "I had to wait for more than 15 minutes on the queue, then my turn came. But the price I had to pay, made me disappointed.
"The rice I bought at Tk 50 per kg about 10 days ago, now becomes Tk 55. Besides, the prices of onion [local] stood up from Tk 40 to 80 within a few days."
Wasiqur, employee of a private company, said they were already panicked over the coronavirus and would suffer more if the price of essential commodities became unaffordable.
Apart from rice and onion, locally grown lentils were sold between Tk 120 to Tk 130 per kg which was between Tk 100 and Tk 110 a week ago.
Potato were sold between Tk 24 and Tk 26 which was between Tk 18 and Tk 20. Imported garlic were sold between Tk 150 and Tk 160 which was between Tk 120 and Tk 130.
This correspondent visited several grocery stores and kitchen markets in the city's Shukrabad, Farmgate and Karwan Bazar areas and collected the prices.
Asked, most of the sellers blamed high demand and low supply of the goods for the sudden price hike. They also claimed that they had to buy those goods with a higher price, which forced them to charge extra.
Mahmudul Islam, another shopper in Karwan Bazar area, said the prices had not have gone up if some people prevented themselves from panic buying.
"I think, we should stop such unnecessary shopping for our own sake," he said.
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