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Fall in Global lentil

Prices No reflection in local retail markets

Dwaipayan Barua, ctg
Customers are yet to reap the benefit of the record fall in the price of lentil in the wholesale hub of Khatunganj in Chattogram as retailers are yet to set their prices to reflect the decreased costs.
Abul Bashar Chowdhury, chairman of a leading lentil importing firm, BSM Group based in Khatunganj, said the price had been falling in the global market for the last couple of years as India, the world's largest buyer of the staple, gradually decreased its imports following good yields there.
Lentils are mostly imported from Canada and Australia in their unrefined form.
The price of the dietary staple in the global market was at around $ 1000 per tonne two years ago, said Bashar, adding that currently the price for Bangladeshi importers ranged between $400 to $450 a tonne.
The wholesale prices of average quality lentil have hovered between Tk 42 to Tk 44 a kg for the last eight months, a fall from the previous rate between Tk 60 to Tk 62 a kg.
Medium sized lentils, found in small quantity, are being sold at the wholesale market forTk 54 to Tk 55 for the same period against the previous price range of Tk74toTk75.
Some quantity of refined lentil with smaller in size is imported from India and those are sold at Tk 73 to Tk 74 a kg, opposed to the previous price ofTk 101 per kg.
The price, however, has not fallen as expected in the retail markets.
Retailers at different kitchen markets and local shops were selling average quality lentil at Tk 60 to Tk 70 per kg, which was previously sold atTk 80-85.
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Medium-sized ones are being retailed at Tk 75, while Indian lentil was being sold between Tk 90 to Tk 100 per kg, showing a slight decrease ofTk 5-8 per kg.
When asked why retail prices were still high, most of the retailers did not have an explanation.
Ashutosh Ghosh, a wholesaler, said the retail prices of most varieties of lentil should not be more than Tk 5-8. However, they were being sold for almost over Tk 20 more than the wholesale price.
He said the retailers had hiked the prices and were profiting from
Solaiman Badshah, owner of
M/s Taiyabiya Daal Mill, who is also a wholesaler, said the price of lentil had never been this low in at least a decade.
He said that the retail price was still too high, even if one included all the associated costs - transport, labour - and possible inventory loss.
Abdur Rahim, a night guard at Dewanhat area, was, however, happy buying a kg of lentil at Tk 65 from Karnaphuli CDA Market, since it seemed cheaper to him compared to before.
However, news of the wholesale prices surprised him and he urged for proper monitoring of the market so that general consumers could get the benefit.