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Essentials prices hit sky-high

PINAKI ROY
The poor and middle class people's plight has reached its peak due to the spiralling prices of essentials a couple of days before the month of Ramadan.
In absence of government control on the market, the prices of essential commodities, especially rice, vegetables and groceries, have already shot up to go beyond the purchasing capacity of the low-income people.
The recent floods and heavy downpour largely contributed to the unusual price hike as a vast tract of vegetable fields have been damaged across the country.
The market may not be stable before December as farmers have just taken fresh initiative to cultivate vegetables despite facing a seed crisis.
"Rice prices have shot up by Tk 3
to 4 a kg in the last 15 days. And vegetable prices are so high that fish and meat are comparatively cheaper," said Shakhawat Hossain, a government official, at Kathalbagan kitchen market in Dhaka yesterday.
"Living cost is going up constantly but income remains the same for years," he said pointing at the increasing gas, water and electricity bills, fuel price and transport fare.
Natural calamity does not always play major role in high commodity prices, unabated toll collection on the highways also makes the transportation costs of agricultural products higher that leaves an adverse impact on the market.
While visiting different kitchen markets in the capital this correspondent found an unusual price situation that forced the people in
the middle class bracket to consume less as their income and budget are limited.
A kilogram of aubergine is now selling at Tk 40, tomato Tk 60, ladies finger Tk 32, cabbage Tk 60, cucumber Tk 20, bean Tk 60 and a medium size pumpkin Tk 50. The price of green chilli has shot up to as high as Tk 120 and ginger to Tk 90 a kg.
Potato and papaya are comparatively cheaper -- selling at Tk 14 and Tk 10 a kg in the capital's kitchen markets. The potato price was Tk 10 a kg hardly 10 days ago.
But the prices of vegetables would not fall in the next two months as new vegetables would hit the market in the first week of December, officials concerned said.
"After the floods, weather is now gradually improving. So we can expect normal price when the new
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vegetables come to the market," said a senior official at the Agribusiness Project of the Department of Agricultural Extension.
The parliamentary standing committee on commerce ministry on Sunday justified the unusual price spiral of essentials citing the recent floods and heavy rainfall.
Although the government do not have control over the market, chairman of the parliamentary body Redwan Ahmed told the meeting that the recent price hike of essentials was not abnormal. "The government has initiated different steps to reduce people's sufferings," he told The Daily Star on Sunday.
But the actual market price of most of the essentials especially the prices of -- rice, potato, soybean, green chilli, ginger and turmeric -were higher than that mentioned in the commerce ministry report presented at the meeting.
Price Comparison
According to a market survey of Consumers Association of Bangladesh (Cab), the price of coarse rice rose to Tk 18 to 19 this month from Tk 13 to 14 in October 2001.
In the last three years, the price of flour increased by Tk 3 to 4 per kg, soybean oil by Tk 10, red pepper by Tk 20, beef by Tk 20, potato Tk 4, egg Tk 14 to 16 per dozen and ginger Tk 50 a kg, reveals the survey.
The Centre for Policy Dialogue, a local think tank, in an analysis said 40 percent of the low-income people in the rural areas spend 51.6 percent of their total household expenses for purchasing foodgrain and 6.9 percent for vegetables.
In the urban areas, the consumers spend 41.5 percent of their total expenses for foodgrain and 6.4 percent for vegetables.
Vegetable traders, however, said they are helpless as they have to buy the commodities at higher prices due to extortion, transport problems, floods and other natural calamities.
"We understand the customers plight but we are retailer and we have to sell the goods keeping profit," said a grocer at Karwanbazar vegetable market.
In the last one week, the prices of both fine and coarse rice rose by Tk 3 to 4 per kg while vegetable prices
never came down after the floods. Different varieties of pulses, which are largely used in Iftar item, also registered a slight rise. Lentil is selling at Tk 44 to Tk 45, kheshari between Tk 35 and Tk 40, mug at Tk 48 a kg.
The price of onion rose to Tk 28 from Tk 22 last week. The prices of fish and meat remain stable -- beef is selling at Tk 100 and mutton Tk 150 per kg.
The prices of rice are on the rise largely due to hoarding by the wholesalers, traders say. "In the last 15 days, rice prices rose by Tk 100 per maund, " said Nur Mohammed, a rice trader at Mohammadpur Krishi market.