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India has suspended onion exports for the time being due to tight supplies due to heavy rains and floods. Unscrupulous traders have become active in the country since the Indian Ministry of Commerce made the decision on Monday. After the night, the price of onions has increased from Tk 35 to Tk 100 per kg in the Kawran Bazar courtyard in the capital. It has also been alleged that many are removing sacks of onions from the warehouse.
Speaking to this reporter last night, the bank official Ziaur Rahman, who came to buy onions at Kawran Bazar, said: ‘The merchant wants 180 paisa (5 kg) of onion from me. I didn’t even buy it. I thought I would buy onions while buying vegetables. After 15 minutes, if he wanted to buy vegetables and retrieve the onion, the merchant demanded Rs 500. I bought it for 450 rupees after much haggling.
After hearing the announcement that India stopped exporting onions, many people flocked to the Kawran market to buy onions. Last year too, the price of onion rose from Rs 2.5 to Rs 300 per kg when India stopped exporting. Many buyers complained that the same type of unscrupulous merchant activity is being seen again.
Yesterday no onion arrived in the country through the land port of Healy. Saidul Alam, Deputy Commissioner of Healy Land and Customs Station, said last night that no onions had reached India due to the onion crisis.
However, importers said that India stopped exporting onions as a strategy to increase prices. Also last year, the price increased in several stages before the export came to a complete halt. Meanwhile, the LCs that are open for the importation of onions and the bidding process has been completed will not export onions, the interested party said.
Saiful Islam, an onion importer, told Ittefaq yesterday that heavy rains and floods had disrupted onion production in various parts of India. However, there was no situation to stop the export of onions. It is nothing more than an inflation strategy.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Ministry had written last week to the National Revenue Board (NBR) requesting the withdrawal of import duties to keep onion prices under control. However, the NBR said yesterday in a letter to the Commerce Ministry that it was not in favor of lifting the tariff on onion imports. The NBR believes that the current tariff on onions will not increase prices at the consumer level. Rather, there should be import-level tariffs to encourage farmers to produce onions locally.
In the latest budget, NBR imposed a 5 percent tariff on onion imports. A senior official in the NBR customs department told Ittefaq that the tariffs were not really responsible for the price increase. We have informed the ministry about this before. On the other hand, an official from the Tariff Commission told Ittefaq on condition of anonymity that to reduce dependency in the long term, it is necessary to ensure a fair price for locally produced onions. Therefore, we have to think about how to protect them.
According to sources from the Ministry of Commerce, the demand for onions in the country is 24 to 25 lakh tonnes per year. And a large part of this demand is covered by imports. Because, although onion production has increased in recent years, imports have increased more than that. According to the Bureau of Statistics, onion production has been stable at 16-18 lakh metric tons over the past five years. But the amount of imports has increased a lot during this time.
TCB to strengthen onion sales: Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), a government marketing agency, currently sells onions at low prices in open markets across the country, including the capital, to keep the onion market stable. Onions are sold at 30 Tk per kg. Yesterday TCB spokesman Humayun Kabir told Ittefaq that TCB has started selling onions with the proper preparation. Onion sales activities will continue until the market stabilizes.
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