Prices of almost all daily essentials, including vegetables and onion, are yet to see a downtrend, especially in the capital’s kitchen markets today (Tuesday), adding woes to the fixed-income groups.
Furthermore, cauliflower has seen a hike on the day.
Prices of three important spices -- onion, ginger and garlic -- are stable.
Prices of broiler and Sonali and Pakistani chickens have stood unchanged maintaining the previous high while egg price remained steady.
The state-run Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM) in its daily report on Tuesday stated that the prices of green chili, beef, egg, local sugar, salt (packed), lentil, onion and flour (packed) are Tk 117-Tk 128 per kg, Tk 552-Tk 571 per kg, Tk 35-Tk 36 (four pieces), Tk 28-Tk 31, at Tk 105-Tk 111 per kg, and Tk 36-Tk 38 per kg respectively.
Apart from this, DAM also reported that the prices stand tomatoes (mature) at Tk 107-Tk 118 broiler chicken at Tk 162-168 a kg, 1.0 litre soybean oil at Tk 139-Tk 141, garlic (local) at Tk 52-Tk 61, garlic (imported) at Tk 115-Tk122, ginger (local) at Tk 93-Tk 107 and ginger (imported) at Tk 106-Tk121.
After visiting some city kitchen markets, this correspondent also found that prices of sugar, edible oil, potatoes, and other different essential spices were seen stable compared to the last couple of days.
Hridoy, a vegetable vendor at the city’s Adabor Bazar, told The Financial Express (FE) that prices of almost all the vegetables remained stable except cauliflower.
He bought five kg of cauliflower at Tk 600 from Mirpur market on Tuesday which was Tk 500 on Monday.
He is selling tomatoes at Tk 150-Tk 160 per kg. The vegetable vendor bought bitter gourd at Tk 56 per kg and now selling it at Tk 70 per kg in retail level.
He bought five kg of green chili at Tk 450 from a wholesale market and was selling the item at Tk 110 to Tk 120 per kg.
The prices of five kg of beans remained at Tk 420 and the item was selling at Tk 110 per kg, he said, adding that at the same time, the price of pumpkin stands at Tk 30 each in the wholesale market. He was selling pumpkin at Tk 40-Tk 50 each.
The price of five kg of snake gourd was Tk 150 at wholesale level. He was selling it at Tk 40-Tk 50 per kg.
Some other vegetable vendors at Adabor, Mohammadpur Krishi Market along with some mobile vendors also echoed the same price level.
Both traders and vendors blamed flood situations in different parts of the country along the Covid-19 for the soaring prices.
They pointed out that supply constraints and spiraling prices in the international commodity market have also triggered the unstable situation in the local market.
They also believe that there was likely a vested group, who are manipulating the prices of essentials, taking the advantages and creating artificial crises in the market.
Akash, a wholesaler, said the prices of onion are ranging between Tk 42-Tk 65 in wholesale while ginger (imported) and local garlic are Tk 120 and Tk 50 respectively.
The prices of three important spices remained more static since the last couple of days, he added.
Rasel, a salesman at New Bismillah Broiler at Mohammadpur Krishi Market, told The FE that he was selling broiler chicken at Tk 170-175 a kg on the day.
Sonali and Pakistani chicken were sold at Tk 300-310 per kg on Tuesday, he said, adding that a dozen of red eggs were sold at Tk 110.
Jabayer Hossain, a proprietor at Bikrampur Trading Corporation at Mohammadpur Krishi Market, said that sugar (loose) was selling at Tk 80-85 per kg.
Other important essentials -- edible oil, pulses, flour and potatoes remained unchanged, he added.
However, the government fixed maximum retail prices of the sweetener at Tk 74-75 a kg on September 9.
