Rise in onion price

In the wake of the skyrocketing onion prices, I was shocked to see the news on TV of huge quantities of the bulb rotting away at various places. How can such an essential cooking ingredient that has been priced at over Tk 200 per kilogramme be left to rot? It just does not add up.

Even though the problem began with India banning the export of onions to our country, the authorities here had enough time and thus the possibility to avoid this catastrophe by making alternative arrangements before the market for onions went out of control. Even if the shortage was fabricated, we know that consignments of Burmese and Egyptian onions have been imported recently. Then why is the price taking so long to stabilise?

This goes to show that it is the result of fraudulent traders who are trying to manipulate the prices unnecessarily out of greed. The traders who are all involved with this ludicrous act must be identified and brought to book.

Masum Molla, retail store owner in Khulna