What really triggered the rice price hike?

Rice not pricier anymore

Speaking at the discussion, Bangladesh Auto Major and Husking Mill Owners’ Association General Secretary Layek Ali opposed the Boithoki title claiming rice prices have decreased. “It is true that the prices had gone up, but they have dropped lately. A type of rice’s price had shot up to Tk43 from Tk38. However, now it has come down.” He said: “Prices of rice and paddy are not the same. Why cannot the government see that? We could not provide rice to the government in the last Aman season. At that time, paddies were priced at Tk23 and rice at Tk33. How do we incur this much loss? Millers agree to face a 50-paisa loss, but how can they incur a loss of Tk3 to Tk4. So, why would the mill owners be blamed for the imbalanced prices set by policymakers and the government?” “The prices of paddies are higher than rice in the market. Hence, we could not supply rice to the government warehouses. We had asked the government to give us an incentive, but to no avail. So, we could not supply rice. How can we do so while suffering losses?” Layek said. He blamed the imbalanced prices of paddies and rice set by the government for the crisis.

Government should take responsibility for the rising rice prices

Bangla Tribune Planning Editor Nazrul Kabir blamed the government’s dependency on import for the price hike of rice. “Due to the emphasis on import, mill owners expressed discontent and raised the prices as well. The government should take responsibility for this.” He said: “At a press conference, the food minister said the media has increased the rice prices but one doth the scathe, another hath the scorn. Kawsar Alam Khan also did the same by blaming the retailers for the price hike.” Nazrul further added: “It is not right to hold one accountable for another’s deed. Even when the government was providing rice at Tk10 per kg, the price in the market rose to Tk70. The government must take responsibility for this too.” He said: “Importers predict the rice crisis. Every business sector has an exclusive group who creates a syndicate and therefore increases the price of goods to make more profit. It is the common people who then come under the pressure of the soaring prices.” In order to reduce the prices, Nazrul said the government and rice traders will have to work together to find solutions and take actions.

Retailers not reducing prices

Kawsar Alam Khan, vice-president of Bangladesh Rice Merchant Association, claimed that retailers were the ones who were not curbing the prices. “I myself had to sell rice at higher prices. I sell rice at the wholesale level. How will the retailers manage to sell rice at lower prices then? They are the ones who push up the prices.” He said: “The retailers used to make a Tk1 profit in one kg of rice. But they currently make a profit ranging from Tk3 to Tk5 per kg. These retailers are not reducing the prices.”

Though no crisis, rice worth Tk38 is being sold at Tk52

Bangla Tribune Business In-Charge Shafiqul Islam told the discussion that the only rice crisis the market saw was during the flood in the haor areas in early March. “Rice traders had taken advantage of that situation. But there is no crisis right now. Yet the rice, which is worth Tk38 is now being sold at Tk52.” “However, as a journalist, I have found out is that the rice prices have started to decline at the wholesale level, which is good news.” He said: “After the flood affected the haor areas and the crisis begun, rice mill owners like Abdur Rashid and Layek Ali stopped supplying rice to the government warehouses. Maybe they have rice hoarded in their warehouses. Maybe they slowly supplied from that stock to the market and raised the prices gradually.” Shafiqul continued: “Soaring rice prices also impacts the other daily essentials and leads to instability in both the market and society. This year’s price hike is unprecedented in Bangladesh’s history and has badly affected the society. The Food Ministry is also responsible for failing to control the hike when it started following the rice crisis caused by the flood in the haor areas.” Addressing Commerce Secretary Shubhashish, he said: “The government alone can figure out the reasons behind the price hike and the solutions. Deploy monitoring teams to the markets and have them only check the vouchers, you will easily find out the rates rice are being bought and sold at. Only the government can stop the price hike and it needs to step in to solve the crisis.”

Rice prices slightly down at wholesale markets

According to Commerce Secretary Shubhashish Bose, the prices at wholesale markets have somewhat dropped. “But that is not the case in retail markets. We have had a meeting at the Food Ministry in this regard. We have also decided on several steps to reduce the prices.” He said: “Even though the Food Ministry was supposed to reserve some rice, not much was stored. Since we have been producing various other crops for past few years and did not encounter any natural disasters, we were not worried about storing rice. Compared to the government’s target, more rice is usually produced.” Regarding the price hike of rice, Shubhashish said: “Illegitimate hoarding of rice is responsible for this. Even though there is a policy on storing grains, nobody followed the rules.”

Flood in haor areas spurred rice price hike

Explaining the cause of the rice price hike, Bangladesh Rice Mill Association Chairman Abdur Rashid said: “The unwanted truth is the rice prices are soaring. The crisis started because of the immense loss of paddy in the floods in the haor region. As the haor region only produces coarse rice, the current crisis is basically for those types of rice, which has also made coarse rice import necessary. That’s why rice prices are going up. ” “The government is informed about the price hike. Though the importers were given special facilities to bring in more rice to tackle the crisis, they kept the rice shipments for a few days at the land ports in the borders and delivered late. Consequently, those special facilities did not help,” he added. “Prices of the coarse rice have only increased, as there is no crisis of fine rice. But the prices will not go beyond control. The government needs to figure out the right policies to tackle the crisis and bring down the prices. Only the government can solve this,” Rashid further added.