The New Nation - Internet Edition

BUSINESS REPORT

Prices of most of the essential commodities, including onion, egg, chicken and beef have gone up ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, that begins only after two weeks.

During the last one week, prices of onion, red lentil and egg increased significantly while prices of rice, potato and non-brand edible oil declined from their previous level in the local market, traders said yesterday.

Prices of onion, both local and imported, showed an upward trend in the city's retail markets during the past one week due to shortage in supply, traders of the city's different retail markets said.

During the same period, they said local onion was selling at Tk 32-Tk 34 per kg against Tk 28-Tk 30 per kg one week back while the prices of imported Indian onion was Tk 26 per kg at the city's retail markets as in the previous week.

Prices of potato have also gone up as it was selling at Tk 18-20 per kg in kitchen markets of the city yesterday.

Besides, prices of ginger has gone up in the wake of sudden rise in buying of it for cooking meat on the occasion of Shab-e-Barat. However, there was no sign of going down the prices of ginger, both local and imported varieties, in the markets yesterday.

Prices of Kheshari, a local variety of lentil, increased by Tk 6 per kg ahead of Ramadan because it is mostly used for making Iftari items, according to the traders.

Kheshari was selling at Tk 66 per kg, which was Tk 60 per kg one week ago.

On the other hand, prices of the finer variety of red lentil and imported Nepalese and Turkish varieties remained unchanged at their previous rates in the local markets. But traders of different retail markets informed that prices of lentil would be higher during the Ramadan.

Each kilogram of local variety (according to the claims of traders although some say it is also an imported one) is now selling at Tk 108-110, while the Indian and Turkish varoiesties of red lentils is selling at Tk 98 and Tk 90 respectively.

Prices of eggs have also increased by Tk 4 to Tk 5 per dozen and at the retail level, a dozen of eggs were selling at Tk 75-Tk 78, which were Tk 68-Tk 70 a week before.

Prices of fine and coarse varieties of rice declined by Tk 1.0 to Tk 2 per kg as the government has planned to launch open-market sale (OMS) of rice from August 20 at Tk 28 per kg.

The Minicate variety of rice was selling at Tk 42-Tk 44 and Nazirshail at Tk 38-Tk 42 per kg against 44-Tk 45 per kg and Tk 42 -Tk 48 per kg respectively a week ago.

Coarse varieties of rice, especially BR-28, were selling at Tk 37-Tk 39 per kg against Tk 39-Tk 41 per kg in the previous week.

At wholesale level, the Minicate variety of rice was selling at Tk 1490-Tk 1495 per maund (37.300 kg) which was Tk 1550- Tk 1560 per maund and the Nazirshail variety of rice was selling at Tk 1550-Tk 1565 which was Tk 1580-Tk 1590 per maund during the last week.

Besides, BR-28 was selling at Tk 1260-Tk 1270 per maund against Tk 1350-Tk 1400 per maund at the wholesale level in the preceding week.

Price of Potato declined by Tk 2 per kg at the city's retail level and was selling at Tk 16 per kg, which was Tk 18 -Tk 20 per kg a week ago.

According to traders, prices of non-brand edible oil declined by Tk 2.0 -Tk 4.0 per kg at the wholesale level but there was no impact in the retail markets.

Traders at the wholesale markets of Karwan Bazar and Naya Bazar said soyabean oil and super palm oil were selling at Tk 107 -Tk 108 per kg and Tk 87-Tk 88 per kg respectively which was Tk 115 -Tk 118 per kg and Tk 92-Tk 96 per kg respectively one week before.

But at the retail level prices of non-brand edible oil including soyabean oil and super palm oil were selling at Tk 116 per kg and Tk 96 per kg respectively, which was Tk 118 -Tk 120 per kg and Tk 98 per kg respectively during the last week.

Prices of flour and sugar remained unchanged at their previous rates of Tk 39-40 per kg and Tk 36 per kg in the local markets.

According to the traders of city's retail markets, prices of a number of vegetables including ladies' finger, brinjal and cowpea were Tk 28 per kg, Tk 30 per kg and Tk 28 per kg respectively.

Cucumber, tomato, green chili and green banana were selling at Tk 28 per kg, Tk 60 per kg, Tk 60 per kg and Tk 20 (four pieces) respectively.

In the city's retail markets, beef and mutton were selling at Tk180-Tk 190 per kg and Tk280-Tk 340 per kg respectively while prices of poultry birds remained unchanged from their previous rate of Tk 125-130 per kg during the last week.