Despite sufficient production of paddy this season, rice market has become unstable again due to manipulation of the syndicate.
Rice mill owners are selling rice as per their expenditure neglecting government-fixed rate.
On the contrary, the price of rice has been rising from the mill gate. Mill owners have almost stopped sending fine and medium quality rice to Dhaka. This has had a negative impact on the wholesale market of the capital due to the rising price of rice.
Bangladesh Auto Rice Mills Owners' Association president AKM Khorshed Alam Khan told The Bangladesh Post that, "Despite getting high price, farmers are reluctant to sell paddy. They are stockpiling paddy in the hope of higher price. Right now, there is no paddy to purchase."
When asking about rice price spiral he replied, "It's an easy equation, if paddy price increases in the field-level, it will impact production level too. Besides, we have variable cost in production, for which we cannot supply rice as per government-fixed price."
"To bring per maund paddy at mill gate from field we have to count Tk 1060. From a maund of paddy we get 24-kilogram rice", he showed the calculation.
Capital's different kitchen market's data showed, within a week, the price of rice has gone up by Tk 2 to Tk 3 per kg.
Instead of paying attention to the price fixed by the government, mill owners are keeping Tk 4 to Tk 5 extra. In this situation, if there is no import from outside, then the price of Miniket Chikon rice will continue to rise.
Food secretary Dr. Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum earlier told The Bangladesh Post that, "Aman production during this season is satisfactory. We hope there will be no shortage of rice in the country. However, if any uncertainty arises, we have all preparations to import rice from abroad through open tender."
According to food ministry sources, the food department has already invited two tenders for the import of 100,000 tonnes of rice. Sources said that more imports will be made, if necessary.
They said the price of rice is rising further due to the manipulation of mill owners. They are not taking new orders just to increase the price. They are always syndicating with rice. Even though the government has fixed the price, they are not listening to it. If this syndicate is not stopped, the instability in the rice market will not stop. Analysts therefore demanded that the government take strict action to break the syndicate.
Khorshed Alam said, "It's true some big giants entered in auto rice mill business. For whom, small and medium businessmen of the sector are struggling. I urge the government to find out those unscrupulous traders and their illegal warehouses where they stockpile paddy to create artificial crisis."
"Even if the government import rice from abroad, it will not bring any relief to the local markets. Rather if the government increases its paddy procurement price, it will create a win win situation both for mill owners, consumers," Khorshed further added.
However, food ministry officials said, the government-fixed price for paddy procurement will not increase further.
