Coarse lentil prices have been rising since the last week of August, with no sign of abating. The retail price of the most basic source of protein saw a fresh hike of Tk10 per kg this week at the capital’s kitchen market.
The prices increased at a time when low-income and lower-middle-income brackets were unable to afford fish, meat, eggs, and other daily essentials.
After visiting different kitchen markets in the capital, it was seen that the prices of coarse lentils have hiked by Tk10 per kg, where the prices of medium and fine variants either hiked by Tk5 in some markets or remained unchanged since the hike from the last week of August.
Currently, the coarse variant of lentil is being sold at Tk105-Tk110 per kg, which was Tk95-Tk100 just a few weeks ago.
However, the prices of the medium and fine variants of lentils are now “stable at high prices” like the prices of most daily essentials in the market.
The medium variant has been sold at Tk115-Tk120 per kg since last August after a hike of Tk5 per kg from Tk110 per kg, while the fine variant retailed at Tk135-Tk140 per kg from Tk130-Tk135 since the last week of that month.
State-owned agency Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) also found the same situation in their daily market analyses.
According to the TCB, the prices of coarse and medium lentils have increased by 5.26% and 4.44% respectively since last month.
However, prices of other pulses like moong, anchor, and chickpeas remained stable in the kitchen market and were being sold at Tk95-Tk135 (based on variant), Tk70-Tk75, Tk80-Tk100 (based on variant) per kg respectively.
Apart from unpacked lentils in the kitchen market, packaged lentils were also available in the supermarkets and sold at Tk145-Tk170 per kg based on brands.
Bablu, a salesperson of Mayer Doya Traders at the capital’s Karwan Bazar, said that the price of lentils, especially the coarse variant, have been rising for the last two-three weeks.
“We do not know why it increased. We have to buy at a higher price from the dealers so we are selling at increased prices. But there is no shortage of supply and the cost of production of other lentils did not go up,” he added.
However, importers said that the prices of lentils in the market had already hiked due to the increase in the cost of opening letters of credit (LC) for its imports.
Moreover, as the dollar market is unstable again, importers are facing difficulties in opening LCs. In this situation, it is necessary to solve the complexity of opening LC before any major crisis is created in the market.
Jahid Hossain, joint-secretary of Bangladesh Daal Bebosayee Samiti, said that now the cost of import has increased again for which the price of lentils is a bit higher.
“While the price of lentils was $900 per tonne in the world market, it is now more than $1,000, which has increased import costs. Moreover, the complexity of opening the import LC still remained,” he added.
Moreover, there is difficulty in getting dollars in banks along with complications in opening import LCs.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), the per capita daily demand for pulses is 45 grams, so, the total demand in the country is about 2.6-2.7 million tonnes annually including all types of pulses.
However, the average production in the country is 900,000-1 million tonnes, meaning there is a shortage of about 60% of pulses every year and Bangladesh needs to import 1.7 million tonnes of pulses.
Meanwhile, Samiti said that the actual annual demand for pulses in the country is 4-4.5 million tons and lentils have the highest demand among them, about 2-2.5 million tonnes annually.
Once, Bangladesh imported more from Syria, Turkiye, and India. But currently, the country imports more from Australia, Canada and Nepal.
Currently, Bangladesh is the sixth largest producer of lentils, according to the FAO.