Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), a wing of the Commerce Ministry to deal with different trades and businesses, is likely to start selling the subsidised onion in the second week of September to ease the price of the key-cooking ingredient.
Meanwhile, the soaring onion price came down to Tk70 per kg yesterday in the capital’s kitchen market from Tk90 two weeks ago.
“We will select two separate tenders on September 6 and 7 to import a total of 400 tonnes of Chinese onions within the second week of the next month while each of the bidders will be able to import 200 tonnes each,” TCB Spokesperson Md Humayun Kabir told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday
He also stated that the Ministry of Commerce would fix the prices of onion after importing from China and it would take six days to import onions from China.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Ministry will sit today with the essential monitoring committee today to discuss about the price of the essential commodities-especially onion and different types of species ahead of the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha. The meeting will also discuss about other alternative sources for importing onions and other essential products from the neighboring countries on urgent basis, according to a commerce ministry source.
A week ago, Indian authority had raised its minimum export price by US$275 a tonne to $700 each tonne to discourage exports and increase supply in its own domestic market to arrest the spiraling prices.
Bangladesh consumes nearly 21 lakh tonnes of onion a year, of which 5-8 lakh tonnes are imported, mainly from India.
