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SUKANTA HALDER, MD ASADUZ ZAMAN and KONGKON KARMAKAR
Rice price in Bangladesh is rising and the rate of coarse grain has crossed Tk 50 a kilogramme nearly after a year, straining further the buying capacity of low-income people, who are already struggling to make ends meet amid higher inflation.
Retailers blame the increase for the spike at the wholesale level while wholesalers say it has gone up at the mill level. Millers put the blame on costlier paddy stemming from the delay in planting and harvesting of Aman.
At the retail level in Dhaka yesterday, coarse rice, mostly consumed by the poor and lower-income groups, was sold for Tk 51 per kg, which was Tk 50 in November and Tk 49 in October, according to state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB). This means the price has increased by an average 3 percent in the last one month.
The finer variety is being sold at Tk 68.5 per kg and the medium grain at Tk 56.5.
Dhiren Babu, a retailer at the Town Hall Bazar in the capital’s Mohammadpur, said he is selling coarse rice at Tk 51 to Tk 52 a kg depending on varieties.
Farmers say owing to unfavourable weather, there was some delay in both plantation and harvesting of Aman, the second-biggest rice crop in Bangladesh, accounting for more than 38 percent of total rice production.
Mohammad Nazim, a farmer in Chuadanga’s Damurhuda upazila, said they usually start the harvesting of Aman in the first week of November and it finishes in the middle of the month.
“This year, harvesting was completed in early December.”
Mohammad Rubel, who works in a school and has land where paddies are cultivated in his village home in Jamalpur, says his workers finished harvesting of the paddy on Friday.
“The price of rice will decrease once new rice hits the market,” said Dhiren.
Abdur Rab, a floating tea seller in Dhaka’s Mirpur, said the prices of every essential have reached an unbearable level. “Last Saturday, I went to markets to buy five kgs rice. After seeing the price increase, I bought four kgs because I had to buy some other essentials.”
“The prices of essentials are on the rise but our income does not increase every week.”
The 53-year-old says he could not describe how difficult it has become for him to make a living. “Due to the rising cost of living, people don’t even consume as much tea and cigarettes as they did in the past. Who will I tell about my suffering?”
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, food inflation stood at 12.56 percent in October, the highest in at least a decade. It, however, slipped to 10.76 percent in November.
Ranjan Chakraborty, manager of Majumder Auto Rice Mill in Sherpur upazila of Bogura, said the price of rice has increased due to the higher paddy price.
At present, millers are buying Swarna-5 paddy at Tk 1,090 per maund. If the transport and milling costs is taken into account, the cost of production of coarse rice stands at Tk 48 per kg.
“So, it is not possible to sell the rice at less than Tk 50 per kg,” Chakraborty said.
However, the price of all types of rice dropped in Dinajpur, one of the major rice-producing regions in the northern part of the country, by Tk 150-Tk 200 for each 50-kg bag within a span of two weeks.
During a visit to the retail and wholesale markets at Bahadurbazar and Railbazarhat in the district town, it was found that a kg of Guti Swarna (coarse rice) is selling at Tk 43, while it was Tk 48 a fortnight ago.
Firoz Ahmed, a wholesaler in Dinajpur’s Bahadurbazar,