Despite good harvest of paddy and adequate stock of rice, unscrupulous traders have hiked the prices of rice on the pretext of supply chain disruption, closure of markets and dearth of goods carriages during Eid holidays.
Organised syndicates are resorting to market manipulation to make the rice market unstable by increasing the price of staple food despite adequate stock.
At the end of Boro season, rice prices skyrocketed across the country, while the government claimed that the country has adequate stock of rice till November.
Based on the market update, it was learned that, after a lapse of two weeks, per sack rice price increased by at least Tk 70 to Tk 100 at the wholesale level, while it jumped by Tk 150 at the retail level.
Turning down the justifiability of price hike of rice, consumers said that, while Boro paddy harvesting has just ended, such soaring rice price is simply unexpected. Giving different views for the rise of rice price traders said, supply chain disrupted due to lack of vehicles movement and closure of markets on Eid vacation.
Besides, many market experts, said there is a tendency among the farmers to stockpile paddy and also at the warehouse level availing the worsening floodsituation. These reasons have been attributed to the hike of price rice.
Rice mill owners said, expectations of farmers and also hoarders to have an exorbitant rate of rice in the flood situation hampered the normal supply of paddy to the mills, resulting in increase ofprices of paddy and rice.
However, the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) said, there will be a surplus of 55 lakh tonnesof rice in November after meeting the local demand.
Bangladesh Auto Major and Husking Mill Owners Association president Abdur Rashid told the media that, “After Eid, per sack Minicat rice price stands at Tk 2,525 which was Tk 2,475 before Eid. Price can increase further in the coming days as presently paddy price is high”.
Bangladesh Rice Merchant Association vice president MollaKawserAlam Khan told The Bangladesh Post that, “Prices of all varieties of rice- fine and coarse- shoot up at least by Tk two per kilogram (kg). Per kg Minicat rice price after Eid is Tk 51 to Tk 52 which was Tk 49 to Tk 50 before Eid. Per kg of BRRI-28 is sold at Tk48 which was Tk 40 to Tk 42”.
Mentioning there is nothing to be worried for price hike of rice he said, “The price of rice which has increased due to the Eid vacation and flood situation will return to its normal position within the next two weeks. There is adequate stock of rice at the farmer level, so there is nothing to worry about”.
Visiting different retail markets in the capital it was found that, par sack Minicat rice is now selling at Tk 2600 to Tk 2700, which was Tk 2500 or Tk 2600 before Eid. Per kg Nazirshail is selling at Tk 58 which was Tk 54, Sorna is selling at Tk 40, which was Tk 38 per kg before Eid, while Paijam is selling at Tk 46 per kg.
However, data from the Department of Agriculture Extension's (DAE) crop-cut results in 64 districts shows paddy yielding, on average, went up by 2 percent. On the other hand, the BRRI’s crop-cuts results from 1,046 farmers show paddy yielding was up by 2.6 percent. This year’s Boro season saw a production of 20.26 million tonnes of rice – a 3.58 percent rise than the last year.
In the case of paddy, in June last year, farmers had 20 percent of the total stock of paddy, which rose to 29 percent in the same period this year.
Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumdar at a recent webinar said, if the millers do supply rice to the government warehouses in time, the price of rice will become normal. Besides, the government has already decided to import limited quantity of rice to keep the rice price stable.