Even though it is still Agrahayan --- the last month of the season of Hemanta or late Fall or Autumn --- on the Bangla calendar, the air is ripe with wintry chill. The array of vegetables that bear the stamp of the Winter are already plenty in the market courtesy of enterprising farmers who now have at their disposal agricultural knowledge and technology to produce vegetables well in advance and almost round the year.
The way vegetables and fruits have helped develop parallel economies in the country is quite remarkable. For years of losses incurred on account of high cost of or no-loss-no-profit paddy cultivation have taught the smart among farmers to opt for cultivation of vegetables, fruits and flowers including the exotic ones. Those who can, try to cultivate and harvest the traditional vegetables and fruits earlier than schedule because their produce then fetches them high profit.
Yet when a distorted market mechanism is the rule of the day, growers get less than the middlemen who connive with each other of the supply chain to eat the cream. In the peak season, when there is a glut in the market, price drops drastically. The demand-supply theory of the free-market economy is more than exploited depending on the commodities concerned. In case of leafy and other perishable produce, middlemen and wholesalers take advantage of the situation leaving growers at their mercy.
In time of economic crises like the one now prevailing, when low-income people and even the middle-class people are desperately struggling to maintain their food intakes, the market volatility fuelled by genuine reasons and also on flimsy pretexts has only caused them financial haemorrhage. Good harvests and abundant supply of vegetables right at this time have at last brought down to some degree the prices of those items. The news is likely to pour honey into the ears of common consumers.
But if some varieties of the perishable farm produce show a price decline, other items of daily use show no sign of giving people any relief. In the peak Aman harvesting season, price of the nation's staple has increased, defying the traditional market trend. Contrary to the set pattern, this is for the first time that farmers also have gained some bargaining power instead of disposing of their new harvest at a throw-away price. One of the reasons is farmers' access to information of the latest food grain prices in the market on a daily basis, courtesy of cell phone. This is possible also because of the fact that paddy is not a perishable item and therefore growers do not have to give in to the urgency of disposal as early as possible.
That cooking oil, sugar are exorbitantly priced in defiance of the government's fixed prices makes it a field day for sellers including the local corporate businesses and multinational companies. Almost every week, detergents, toiletries and cosmetics register a price gallop and one cannot quite keep pace with the mad rush. The fact is that not every item's price is pushed to an outrageous level for genuine reasons. Businesses are on the lookout to maximise profits beyond reasons, as if they are out to compensate for the market slump during the Covid-time lockdown.
Government sources report that oil and sugar are not short in supply. This claim has time and again been corroborated by the mobile court's drives against hoarding. Large quantities of sugar and oil have been recovered from clandestinely stored godowns or other places. Who knows if all such clandestine warehouses could be busted! Creation of artificial crises of commodities in the market has been a common ploy---in the post-Covid period only more so---to make unethical business with the ulterior motive of reaping outrageous profit.
In a situation like this the Directorate of National Consumers' Right Protection (DNCRP) could have played a significant role provided that it was strengthened and given enough mandate for that purpose. Its tentative intervention in the market has hardly any positive results to show. When the very fundamental principles and spirit of the free market economy are undermined by businesspeople, let the DNCRP be given the power and muscle to take appropriate actions against market manipulators.
