Consumers have shown little interest in buying onion from the government’s open market sale because of the low quality.
The government Thursday began selling onions in OMS around the country at Tk47 per kilogram through the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
TCB, the only state trading agency, has imported 100 tonnes of onions from India in a bid to curb the shooting prices in the retail market, especially to help the low income group people.
This correspondent, who visited a number kitchen markets in the capital Thursday, found out that imported onions were sold for Tk65-Tk70 per kg, while locally grown onions sold for Tk60.
The Indian onions available in the retail market are entirely imported by private traders. Consumers said the quality of the onions imported privately was far better than the onions that the government had imported through TCB.
Many poor consumers – the group that the OMS is actually meant to serve – said they could not buy onions from the OMS outlets because the TCB appointed dealers were not selling less than 5kgs at a time.
This correspondent has found out that the electronic balance that the TCB dealers are using cannot weigh anything below 5kgs.
“I wanted to buy 2kg of onions. But the dealer told me that I would have to buy at least 5kg. I cannot afford that much,” said Ruhul Amin, a rickshaw puller.
“The onions that the government is selling in the OMS trucks are of very low quality. Compared to the quality, the price is too high,” said Md Jakir Hossain, a resident of Mirpur in the capital.
“At least 15% of the onions are nearly rotten,” said Tusher, a fourth class government employee.
“There is no way that such low quality onions could be sold at Tk47 per kg. The government is totally playing games with us by importing rotten onion from India,” said Enamul Haque, a consumer, who was disappointed with the quality of the OMS onion.
He also said if the government thought about people’s sufferings, it would supply good onions and reconsider the price.
Consumers also alleged that they had to wait for hours in long queues as the onion-laden trucks were late in reaching the designated OMS spots.
The dealers, on the other hand, blamed TCB for lingering with the delivery of the imported onions for the delay.
TCB Public Relations Officer Humayun Kabir said they did not know that the dealers were not selling less than 5kg at a time.
About the question regarding quality, Kabir said one or two sacks of onions might have got rotten due to rain. He, however, asserted that the dealers had been given strict instructions to not sell any rotten onion.
The TCB appointed a total of 35 dealers for selling onions in OMS trucks in different parts of the capital and 184 other trucks in various parts of the country.
