Supply crunch hikes onion prices

Photo: Star/File

Onion prices shot up as much as Tk 9 a kilogram in the city markets due to supply disruption and escalating prices in India, the main import source.
Retailers sold onion at Tk 35-45 a kg yesterday, when a week ago it sold at Tk 28-36, according to Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.
In some stores and markets, onions are selling at Tk 50 a kg, according to data from the Department of Agricultural Marketing.
"Supply from the Bhomra land port, one of the major channels for onion import, has been on hold in the past two weeks," said Narayan Chandra Saha, an onion importer at Old Dhaka's Shyambazar, a wholesale point for onion.
The clearing and forwarding agent associations of the two countries' ports went on strike on January 20, demanding movement of heavy vehicles between the two ports.
Earlier, lorries could enter the Bhomra port, but it has been banned of late due to poor condition of the bridge.
"We hope the [strike] will be dissolved shortly and prices would come down to normal in the domestic market," said Md Alamgir Hossain, an onion importer at Bhomra.
The rising prices of onion in India, the country's main source of the essential cooking ingredient, are also to blame for the price hike.
India has seen the prices soar in recent times due to insufficient supply arising out of dry weather in its onion-producing areas.
In a letter, Sheila Dikshit, the chief minister of Delhi, asked Sharad Pawar, India's agriculture minister, to curb onion exports “to bring about an improvement in onion rates”.
Helal Sikder, a salesman at Rajib Bainjavandar at Shyambazar, said prices of each kg of imported onion now stand at Tk 36 in Dhaka.
But the harvest of early varieties of onion has begun in Faridpur, one of the major onion producing areas. “It will cause prices to fall,” he said.
Saha also expects the prices to drop in ten days' time on the back of increased arrival of imported onions and fresh harvest.