As the onion price has hit all-time high of Tk200 per kg, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday said there was enough stock of onions but those are not being released to the market.
“It seems there’s stock of onions in the country and these are rotting in many places. But onions are not being released to the market,” she said, while delivering her valedictory speech of the fifth session of the 11th parliament, reports UNB.
She said drives were conducted in many places against such hoarding of onions.
About the initiatives to lower the price hike of onion, she said that onions were sold at Tk45-50 per kg on open market at different places of the country through Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
The prime minister said TCB would also sell some 50,000 tons of onion that will arrive in Bangladesh soon from Egypt.
“LC (Letter of Credit) has already been opened for importing 50,000 tons of onion from Egypt. These will arrive within a few days,” she said.
She said she has already directed the TCB to distribute these onions at the district level.
Hasina said the government has also taken an initiative to import onions from Egypt and Turkey. “We’re also looking whether onions can be imported from other places.”
Mentioning the onion crisis is happening now as it is cultivated in one season, she said with joy that the researchers have invented a type of onion that can be cultivated throughout the year.
Pointing at the remarks of an opposition MP that onion price was only Tk8-10 in India, she said such a low price was only in one state of India, as the supply of onion from that state to others was suspended.
Noting that onions were being sold at Rs100 throughout India, the prime minister said India also imports onions due to shortage.
