Rice price shoots up in Sherpur

Rice price has marked a drastic rise in food-surplus Sherpur district, ranging up to Tk 150 per maund over the week.
Acting Police Super Anisur Rahman told the news agency that teams of intelligence agencies are in the field to find out the reasons of the price hike.
Rice mill owners attributed the rise in price to two factors -- unusual bulk buying of rice from the district by traders from Kushtia, a district bordering drought-hit India, and the tendency of hoarding by a section of traders in view of the lean season.
Bengali months of Ashwin and Kartik are the lean season when the period is known as Monga that hits the northern region of the country.
Traders here said supply of paddy from the growers has declined because of 'odd season'. This has given a rise to the rice price.
Dealers at Bat Tala, the biggest rice trading centre of the district, said price has increased up to Tk 150 per maund over the week. Before Eid, coarse rice was selling between Tk 700 and Tk 720 per maund, which was priced at Tk 780-Tk 800 on Tuesday.
Similarly BR-28 variety of rice now sells at around Tk 1,100, BR-29 at Tk 1,020 and quality rice Nazir sells at Tk 1,600 per maund.
Price is increasing every day although adequate stocks are found in rice selling centres and husking mills.
Dealers say the traders of Kushtia are buying BR-28 rice in bulk amount.
They claim this coarse variety of rice is put into sorting machine and transformed to look as Miniket, a fine variety, which is marketed in different cities including Dhaka at higher price.