Sugar crisis grips Moulvibazar
An acute sugar crisis gripped Moulvibazar as most retail shops in the district ran out of the hot Ramadan commodity due to a poor supply from the wholesalers, said retailers in the area.
As per the conditions set by the wholesalers, the retailers need to buy three sacks of flour to get a sack of sugar, a retailer said to The Daily Star on Tuesday.
The crisis worsened in the area, as none but City Group has appointed distributor in Moulvibazar to sell the product.
A wholesaler in Moulvibazar said he did not go to Chittagong to buy sugar, as there are possibilities of being hijacked on the way to his shop.
Retailers also alleged that some wholesalers in the area have huge sugar stocks, but they do not supply those in the hope of pocketing more profits.
On Tuesday, sugar was sold at Tk 78 to Tk 80 a kilogram. But there was no sugar in the market yesterday.
Kadar Ali, general secretary of Srimangal Merchants' Association and a wholesaler in the district, said they do not get sugar at mill gates.
The wholesalers in Bhairab or Chittagong set a condition that one has to buy 200 sacks of flour and 220 litres of soybean oil with every 100 sacks of sugar, Ali added.
So many local traders failed to purchase sugar from these two areas, he said.
Md Mostafizur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Moulvibazar, said he took an initiative and distributed 200 sacks of sugar among the retailers in Moulvibazar and Kamalganj to ease the crisis.
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