With the onset of the winter, new vegetables have started to arrive in the kitchen markets across the country, but prices have remained out of the reach of the common people.
Despite implausible higher prices of these vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, gourds, potatoes, broad beans and tomatoes, many consumers are tempted to buy them at least in a small quantity. This is because consumers find these vegetables as a unique taste during the winter months, which adds to their allure. However, they are struggling to afford these seasonal vegetables.
In addition to vegetables, prices of other essential commodities like soybean oil, palm oil, onions, garlic, cardamom, different varieties of rice and flours and food products have continued to rise during the past few months.
Surprisingly, the price hike of essential products could not be brought under control in spite of various measures undertaken by the interim government. First of all, the government has cut import duties on a range of products including potatoes, sugar, edible oil, rice and onions in the past three months to bolster supplies.
To monitor the market and review the supply chain of essential commodities, the Ministry of Commerce also formed a 10-member special task force at the district level. Besides, Trading Corporation of Bangladesh is selling some most essential items at subsidised prices through its open market sales programmes in Dhaka and elsewhere of the country.
But all the government's efforts to rein in commodity prices have been of little avail until now.
As a result, food security in Bangladesh has become a grave concern. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, published by international agencies including the United Nations in early November, nearly 23.3 million people or 26 percent of our population are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity.
This is why food inflation has remained above 10 percent for six consecutive months since April this year. Meanwhile, overall inflation stayed above 9 percent since March 2023, although the Bangladesh Bank has been raising the policy rate since May of the previous year to curb demand and control inflation.
Why have prices of most needed products including foodstuffs continued to spike? The first and foremost reason at the moment cited by the experts is supply disruption due to recent natural disasters. Devastating floods in the country's eastern districts coupled with heavy rainfall damaged fields of crops and vegetables cultivation in August.
Earlier, heatwaves in April 2024 and Cyclone Remal in May 2024 significantly affected agricultural production, contributing to the rise in food prices.
Another persisting head spin in our retail markets are the syndications of wholesalers, distributors and retailers who collaborate with each other to create an artificial crisis of certain product with flimsy excuses in order to fleece consumers.
Since this kitchen market volatility is fairly common in our retail markets every now and then, the government needs to come down hard on these syndications for the sake of stabilizing the markets.
