Stocks of onion ran out quickly on Tuesday, the first day of open market sale of the essential kitchen item by the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) in Dhaka.
When visiting Khamarbari area in Farmgate at 2:30pm on the day, Dhaka Tribune found no stocks of onion available.
Md Kabir, a seller on the TCB truck conducting open market sale (OMS), said they had brought 1,000kg of onion at 10:00am, half of which was intended to sold at Khamarbari and the rest at Mohammadpur.
"Our stock ran out by noon at Farmgate," he said, adding, “ We did not go to Mohammadpur as there was no more in stock.”
"Many of whom who came later had to return empty-handed," he added.
Aziz Khan, a buyer at Farmgate, opted to buy onion from the OMS scheme of the TCB at Tk45 pr kg but was disappointed as there was no stock.
“I wanted to buy at cheaper rate, but I found no onion available at the truck,” a frustrated Aziz told Dhaka Tribune.
According to sources at TCB, 5,000kg of onions were supposed to be sold through OMS using five trucks at 10 spots, including Khamarbari, Mohammadpur, Press Club, Motijheel, Mirpur and Jatrabari.
TCB spokesperson Humayun Kabir told Dhaka Tribune: "We heard about onion supply running out on the first day, but currently there is no plan to increase the supply from 5,000kg until tomorrow (Thursday)."
He informed that the onion was purchased from Shyambazar wholesale market for Tk50 per kg.
