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Rice prices shoot up again

Sohel Parvez
Rice prices are gradually rising in the face of strikes, syndication by traders and speculation of a fall in production due to late harvest.
In the city markets, coarse rice prices increased 7 percent to Tk 30-32 per kilogram from Tk 28-30 at the beginning of the year. Prices of fine rice also edged up, according to the Department of Agricultural Marketing.
Prices began spiralling in January when a cold wave struck the country and a section of big millers and traders started purchasing paddy as seedlings were hit by fog and cold injuries in many areas, according to the traders.
Recent strikes and syndication by traders might be responsible for the price hike, according to the Fortnightly Foodgrain Outlook by the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit of the food ministry.
Jamaat-e-Islami mainly enforced the strikes, demanding release of their leaders, who face trials for war crimes in 1971's LiberationWar of Bangladesh.
Boro rice production may fall this season due to late harvest and delayed transplantation, said Nirod Boron Saha, president
of an association of rice and paddy wholesalers in Naogaon.
He said prices of aman rice, harvested in November-
December, increased byTk200 a maund on an average in the last one and a half month amid increased purchase of the grain
by millers and stockists.
Price of a maund of coarse rice now hovers around Tk 1,000 in Naogaon, a major rice wholesale hub in the north, he said. Medium rice now sells at Tk 1,060 to Tk 1,100 a maund, he said.
The market remained stable in the last several days due to low presence of customers, said Saha.
Turnout of buyers is low now amid the fear of political unrests relating to the trials of war criminals, said Mohammad Jasim Uddin, owner of Haji Rice Agency at Karwan Bazar.
Hoarders have now started releasing their stocks, he said.
Rice production slipped 7 percent to 21.6 lakh tonnes during the aus season in 2012-13, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
Estimate of aman output, the second biggest crop after boro, is yet to be finalised. The government expects it may achieve the production target of 1.33 crore tonnes depending on a bigger plantation area and a favourable weather.
Rice output rose nearly 1 percent to record 3.38 crore tonnes in 2011 -12 from 3.37 crore tonnes the previous year, according to the BBS.