Onion price at Hili port drops by Tk7-8 per kg

The price of imported onion has fallen by Tk7-8 per kilogram at Hili border over the last couple of days. Onion is just being harvested in different states of India, leading to an increased supply and lowering of the import price as well, according to traders. The truck sale (wholesale) price of onion at the port stood at Tk47-48 per kg on Friday. The imported onion was sold at Tk54-55 just a couple of days before that. Hili Land Port Importers-Exporters Group President Md Harun told the Dhaka Tribune that the onion supply from India is expected to increase over the next two weeks. As the local onion growers are also set to begin the harvest during the same time frame, the wholesale price of onion would continue to go down, he observed. The price of onions in retail markets across Bangladesh has surged from Tk25-35 to Tk80-90 per kilogram in the last two weeks. Traders have given a multitude of excuses for this staggering price hike, such as shortage of supply and increased prices in neighbouring India. However, traders, market observers and the Commerce Ministry have made conflicting statements about the situation. According to sources from the Ministry of Agriculture, Bangladesh has a demand of around 2.2 million metric tons of onions per year and its domestically produced 1.9 million metric tons of onions in the current year. The shortage of onions should not have exceeded 300,000 metric tons. However, Bangladesh imported a total of 770,875 metric tons of onion from January 1 to October 17.