Despite a relatively low price, coarse rice being sold in the open market sale (OMS) points failed to make the desired impression on the people with limited financial means.
Both the buyers and selling agents blamed the poor quality of rice, which they said “smelled” when cooked and also tasted bad affecting its sale adversely.
“The number of customers reduced significantly this year,” said Tariqul Islam, a selling agent, stationed in the capital’s Mirpur area. There were very few customers around his rice-carrying truck.
“Each truck consists of two tonnes of rice. It used to take me 3 hours to sell this amount before, but now it takes almost three days,” he said, adding he keeps his truck parked from 9am to 5pm for people to buy rice.
Tofazzal Hossain, a customer, said he used to buy rice from an open selling point before but then stopped doing so, because the rice produced foul smell after boiling.
However, Ahmed Hossain Khan, director general of Food Division, denied the reports of plummeting sales, saying consumer response has been as expected.
Asked about allegations of low-quality rice, he said it could happen because the quality of rice varied from region to region.
The government started selling rice in the open market in all major cities of the country on August 22. The initiative was taken to ease the pressure on the lower-income group people struggling to keep up with the rising price of rice.
Sources said, as per the government decision, 60 trucks were placed in different parts of the capital to sell coarse rice at Tk24 per kg. The usual market price of the same is between Tk35 and Tk37 (it was Tk28 during this time last year).
However, there are allegations that some selling agents are not abiding by the government directive to not sell more than five kilograms of rice to a single family per day. At the capital’s Panthapath area, a seller named Afzal Hossain was seen selling 20kg of rice to a customer. Afzal claimed he flouted the government order to “finish” his stock.
Dr Asaduzzaman, who is working with the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, said people were losing interest in the OMS rice because of its quality.
Rice sold in the last four years in open market was of a slightly better quality but the quality fell further this year, he added.
Aside from Dhaka, the OMS programme is being run in Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Barisal, Comilla and other cities and areas known for high concentration of labour.
There are reports that the programme would be extended to other regions within this week and that it would continue till the price of rice returns to normal.
