Ongoing floods in the country’s northern and northeastern parts for the last two weeks have drastically reduced supply of vegetables, causing prices at the capital’s kitchen markets to soar.
City dwellers for a week are paying Tk15-20 more for each kilogramme of vegetables.
Most of the city kitchen markets sold chillies at Tk200 per kg yesterday even though it is the season of the plant.
Besides, one kilogramme of onion was sold at Tk70-75 while local and imported garlic cost Tk80 and Tk110-120 per kg.
“Prices of almost all vegetables went up by Tk15-20 per kg as supply is low at the central kitchen market in Karwan Bazar,” said Ahamad Ali, a retailer at Mohammadpur kitchen market, adding that none of the items could be bought for less than Tk50.
Floods that continued in the northern region as a result of torrential rains and onrush of hill water from the Indian states of Assam and Meghalaya for the last couple of days have inundated vast areas of croplands, inflicting heavy damage.
The number of transports carrying vegetables from different parts of the country, especially the northern districts, to the capital has deceased sharply due to shortage that resulted from damage done by floods.
Wholesaler Abbas Uddin, who owns Salma Enterprise at Karwan Bazar kitchen market, yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune a mere 150-200 trucks transported vegetables to the capital in the last seven days while the usual number is around 500.
People of low- and middle-income groups bore the brunt of the abrupt price hike of food.
“None of the items in the market is priced below Tk50, which is a financial burden too heavy for me to bear. I always look for low-cost items but now I have been badly hit by higher prices,” Kamal Uddin, a day labourer, told the Dhaka Tribune while buying vegetables from Karwan Bazar yesterday.
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), floods submerged around 250,000 hectares of arable land. Some 15,000 hectares of those lands contained seasonal vegetables while major cereal crops, including Aman paddy, were grown in the rest.
“Possibilities are low that water would recede from Aman fields by next week but flood has wreaked havoc on vegetable fields, causing irrevocable damage,” said DAE Deputy Director Chaitanya Kumar Das.
He said flood would also put potato growers in trouble as they would not get enough time to have their lands dried. “They will be forced to bring changes to sowing times accordingly.”
Chaitanya said chances of vegetables getting cheaper soon were low in view of the present situation as farmers would now have to be prepared for winter crops.
Vegetables supplied to Dhaka largely come from Gaibandha, Bogra, Rangpur and Jessore, districts that have been affected by the recent floods.