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Essentials get costlier

Rice prices decline in wholesale markets

Staff Correspondent
The wholesale price of rice slumped for the third consecutive day, without making any impact on retail markets in the capital as of yesterday.
In the meantime, prices of onion, potato and milk powder have been witnessing a rising trend during the last couple of days.
Against the backdrop of soaring prices of essentials, people belonging to the middle and lower income group continue to pour into the open market sale (OMS) outlets and fair price outlets of Bangladesh Rilles (BDR)
Meanwhile, the BDR said it would set up 25 more fair price outlets in the capital by Sunday.
"We shall be able to sell rice to about 50,000 to 1 lakh people at the new 25 outlets a day at a fair price," BDR Sector Commander Col
Mojibul Hoque told reporters at a news briefing at the BDR headquarters.
"We hope to sell about 200-300 tonnes of rice a day to the poor and lower middle class people at the 25 outlets at a fair price,” he said.
Col Mojibul said other items would also be sold at the outlets al a cheaper price.
At present, the number of BDR-run outlets in the capital stands at 50 where about 600 tonnes of rice arc sold to about one lakh people a day.
Earlier, BDR had set up five wholesale kitchen markets at Gabtali, Ultara sector-6 and 2, Jatrabari and Sahidnagar in the city.
The wholesale prices of different varieties of coarse rice came down further, by Tk 20 per maund yesterday. A maund of coarse rice was selling from Tk 1,230 to Tk
1,290 at city wholesale markets yesterday. The same varieties were sold for Tk 1,250 to Tk 1,310 a maund the day before.
Nizam Uddin, general secretary of Babubazar and Badamtoli Rice Wholesalers' Association, told The Daily Star that the prices of difler-enl varieties of coarse rice felTbyTk 40 to Tk 60 per maund in the last three days.
Sufficient supply and plummeting sales are the primary reasons behind the declining prices and it is unlikely that the prices would go up again in lire coming days, he added.
Wholesalers al different markets said the supply of rice increased all on a sudden in the last couple of days.
Wishing anonymity, a few wholesalers at Babubazar and Krishi Market at Mohammadpur in the city said nee hoarders have started to release their stockpiled rice in the market in the wake of falling prices, triggering the ongoing reduction in its prices.
The prices of onion and potato increased on both the wholesale and retail markets in the capital yesterday, after weeks of decline in their prices.
The retail price of local onion rose by Tk 2 per kilogram (kg) while the price of Indian onion crept up by Tk 1 a kg in the last three days. Local onion was selling at Tk 18 to Tk 22 per kg and Indian onion was being sold for Tk 14 to Tk 16 at different city markets yesterday.
Onion farmer Abdul Awal, who sells his produce directly at the Karwan Bazar wholesale market, told The Daily Star that the wholesale price of a 5-kg bulk of local onions yesterday jumped to Tk 85 from Tk 75 three days back
He also alleged that onion hoard -ers across the country including in his home district Pabna started to stockpile onions with a hope to sell it at higher prices later.
The wholesale price of potato also rose to Tk 11 to Tk 11.50 per kg from Tk 9.50 to Tk 10.50 three day’s ago.
At the retail markets yesterday, a kg of potato was selling at Tk l2toTk 14 as opposed to Tk 12 to Tk 13 three day’s back.
A wholesaler at Karwan Bazar said he used to sell 50-60 sacks (80-kg per sack) of potatoes every day only a week ago, but the sale has reached 80 to 90 sacks a day in the last fewdays.
The potato wholesalers claimed that rising sales have contributed to the increased price of potatoes.
Meanwhile, prices of different brands of milk powder including Dano, Cerelac, Lactogen and Diploma increased during the last couple of weeks.
A 400-gram pack of Dano milk powder rose to Tk 230 from Tk 210 a week ago while tire same sized pack of Cerelac rose to Tk 280 from Tk 245 ten days back A 1-kg container of Lactgen-2 rose to Tk 800 from Tk 785 two weeks ago and a 1 -kg polypack of Diploma rose to Tk 515 from Tk 490, said market sources.