Soybean oil prices up

Traders have hiked the price of bottled soybean oil for short supply from major refiners.
The price rose by Tk 3 per litre in Dhaka and Tk 1 per litre in Chittagong in a week, retailers told The Daily Star yesterday.
A five-litre bottle of edible oil of different brands was selling at Tk 670-685 in the city markets yesterday, according to Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.
Our Chittagong correspondent said retailers in the port city were selling each bottle of oil for Tk 665-670.
Visiting the Karwan Bazar kitchen market yesterday, this correspondent found a shortage in supply of some leading brands such as Rupchanda and Teer.
Retailers in both the cities blamed short supply from the oil refiners for the rising prices.
“The retailers are yet to get supply of Teer oil, although the distributors took orders from them last week,” said Ratan Nandi, manager of PR Traders at Karnaphuli CDA Market in Chittagong.
Prices shot up despite the commerce ministry and millers' claims of adequate stocks to meet the increased demand during the Ramadan.
The ministry earlier had warned of taking stern action against any unscrupulous businessman for profiteering tendency and now it claims that it has been monitoring the market.
The government is monitoring the kitchen markets in the city and it will take punitive action against the wrongdoers, Commerce Secretary Ghulam Hussain told this newspaper. “We will visit the Karwan Bazar retail market tomorrow [today] to check the prices.”
A monitoring team of the commerce ministry visited one of the city's largest wholesale markets, Moulvibazar, he added.
Some millers cited unloading problems at Chittagong Port for the shortage in supply of bottled soybean oil.
Delays in unloading of vessels at the port had caused the supply shortage in the last two days, said Biswajit Saha, general manager of City Group of Industries. The company markets “Teer” cooking oil.
City Group has already started delivering oil. So there is no reason for hiking the prices of “Teer” soybean oil, he mentioned.
Contacted, Shoeb Md Asaduzzaman, head of sales and marketing of Bangladesh Edible Oil Ltd, said his company will resolve the supply crisis by today.
“The company started full-scale delivery of edible oil [Rupchanda] from tomorrow [today],” he noted.