Syndicates control rice prices in N districts

Adequate supply of Boro paddy at declining rates failed to lower prices of rice proportionately in local markets due to manipulation by a syndicate of rice mill owners and wholesalers in eight northern districts.
A kg of BR-29 variety of rice is selling at about Tk 30, BR-28 at Tk 32 while hybrid variety coarse rice like Jagoron, Hira, Hiraton etc are selling at Tk 29 in different retail rice markets of Rangpur, Dinajpur, Nilpahamari, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Thakurgaon and Panchagarh districts.
Now the prices of a maund (37.5kg) of BR-29, BR-28 and hybrid varieties of paddy in the local markets are Tk 660, Tk 675 and Tk 680 although they sold at Tk 725, Tk 775 and Tk 725 three weeks ago.
Many millers, stockists and big farmers, who hoarded huge Boro paddy after its harvest to get high profit later, are now hurriedly selling the paddy to avoid loss as the weather is favourable for Aman cultivation, said sources at food and agriculture departments, adding that the prices of paddy have fallen in the region but the rice prices have remained almost the same.
Government initiative to sell rice under OMS (open market sale) programme has failed to attract people as the price -- Tk 28 per kg -- is very little different from the market price of slightly better quality rice. OMS price was Tk 25 a kg few months ago.
Several rice mills owners, however, said the entire process to prepare rice from a maund of paddy costs Tk 30 and so, the cost of a maund of BR-29 variety of paddy purchased at the mill gate is actually stands at Tk 690 (Tk 660+ Tk 30).
From a maund of BR-29 paddy, some 26.5kg of market variety of rice can be prepared and so, the neat cost of a kg of BR-29 variety of rice stands at Tk 26, sources said.
The same sources said the reasonable retail price of a kg of that variety of rice should not be more than Tk 27.50 if the miller, wholesaler and the retailer make a profit of Tk 0.50 per kg each. But it is selling in the market at Tk 30. The situation is more or less same in case of other variety of rice, sources said.
A retailer of Nilphamari Nitai Sarkar said that they have to take higher price from the consumers as they buy rice at high prices from the millers and wholesalers.
“We usually sell rice for a very small profit as the market is very competitive,” Raqibul Alam Chowdhury, president of Rice Mills Owners Association of Nilphamari, said.
Agriculture Extension Department sources said this year Aman is cultivated on 10.22 lakh hectares of land with target to produce 31 lakh 69 thousand tonne of rice in eight districts.