Commerce Secretary Mahbub Ahmed has contradicted a recent statement by the commerce minister saying that the cost of imported onions might shoot up in the local market due to price increases in neighbouring India.
“We have enough stocks of onions in the local market, so there is no possibility of price hikes of the essential item during Ramadan,” Mahbub told reporters yesterday at his secretariat office.
“Onion is selling in the local currency equivalent of Tk26 per kg in Indian kitchen markets. As a result, the price of onions will not rise during the fasting month,” he added.
On Wednesday, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said the local onion market might heat up as Indian authorities have doubled the export price. The minister also said onions would be imported from Myanmar and Turkey to stabilise market prices.
The commerce secretary said the monthly consumption of onions in the country was 1.40 lakh tonnes, which was likely to double during Ramadan.
Bangladesh produced about 13.58 lakh tonnes of onions last year, against an annual requirement of 22 lakh tonnes. The shortfall of 8.50 lakh tonnes was imported from India, Mahbub said.
He also assured that a large number of letters of credit were opened with commercial banks in border areas for importing onions from India.
“But we were not able to collect the actual import figures,” he added.
Regarding imports from Myanmar and Turkey in a crisis, the secretary said he had recently visited Turkey to survey the onion market there.
Meanwhile, imported Indian onions sold at Tk40 per kg last week at kitchen markets in the capital, while local onions went for Tk36 per kg.
At Shyambazar wholesale market, a kilogram of Indian onions was priced at Tk25-30, while local onions cost Tk28-30 per kg.
On June 17, the Indian government imposed a minimum export price of $300 per tonne for onions to regulate exports amid an inflation scare at home.
Onion prices in Bangladesh hit an all-time high of Tk110 per kg in October 2013, hitting consumers hard.