Non-brand edible oil prices slump

Prices of non-brand edible oil witnessed a sharp fall in the city markets last week while prices of all brands of soyabean oil are yet to come down.
Market sources said, in a span of a week prices of per kilogram (kg) palm and super palm oil dropped by Tk12 and Tk15 respectively while a Kg non-brand soyabean oil came down by Tk 8-10.
In city's retail markets the prices of palm oil marked the lowest in two years, traders said.
Trader Abdur Rahman, owner of Mizan Store at Karwan Bazar, said they were selling a kg palm oil at Tk 46-48 but only a week ago it was Tk 60-62 while 5 months back it was Tk 105-110.
“Super palm oil (better quality) is selling at Tk 60 per Kg,” he said adding that it was Tk 75 a week back.
Yesterday per Kg non-brand soyabean oil was selling at Tk 100-102 while a week ago it sold for Tk 110-112, retailers said.
During a visit to different small city markets it was found that retailers in such markets had not yet lowered the prices. They were selling per Kg palm and super palm oil at Tk 60 and Tk 80 respectively taking the advantage of the ignorance of customers.
In wholesale markets per kg palm oil was selling for Tk 44, per kg super palm oil for Tk 57 and per kg soyabean oil for Tk 97 on Thursday, city's Moulovi Bazar oil traders informed.
Prices of all brands of soyabean oil have not yet plummeted in the city markets, traders added.
Representatives of different brand soyabean oil companies assured that the prices would decrease but they did not mention to what extent it would come down, market sources said.
AKM Fakhrul Alam, regional manager of Malaysian Palm Oil Council said in December one lakh tonne of palm oil had been imported in the country and distributed to different markets while recently imported 42 thousand tonnes of soyabean oil are yet to be distributed to the markets.
He also informed that per tonne crude palm oil costs $592 while the soyabean (a kg) costs $730.