Wholesale rice price drop not yet reflected at retail markets

Rising imports have yet to reduce the price of rice at retail, despite a lower wholesale price.

Though traders are selling coarse rice imported from India at a lower price, the price of local varieties like, Swarna, BR-28 and Miniket remains steep.

On Friday, three stores in Mohakhali were selling BR-28 around Tk 50-52 per kg, BR-29 at Tk 54, Miniket at Tk 58, and Najirshail at Tk 60 per kg.

Traders at the Hajji Haider Ali Store said they had bought a 50 kg sack of Najirshail at Tk 2,730 and Miniket at Tk 2,680 a sack on Thursday from the capital's Kachukhet kitchen market.

The store was selling Miniket at Tk 58 per kg and BR-28 and BR-29 at Tk 54.

Biplob Hossain, the manager of Satarkul Rice Agency in Dhaka's Badda, told bdnews24.com the same day that 50kg Miniket rice sacks had been selling for Tk 70 less for almost a week.
 

The price of coarse rice, BR-28 and Najirshail has dropped by nearly Tk 100 a sack.

A sack of Miniket rice is now Tk 2,630, BR-28 is Tk 2,350, Najirshail Tk 2,650 and coarse rice Tk 2,050.

Hossain said the impact of imports had now reached the mill level and would decrease the price of all rice varieties by Tk 2-3.

But, according to Mohakhali rice seller Manik Miah, the price of rice has not decreased significantly, aside from the coarse Nurjahan Swarna grain, which comes from India.

The trader was selling Nurjahan Swarna at Tk 47 per kg and Tk 2,200 a sack. Miniket was priced at Tk 2,700 and was sold at retail at Tk 56 per kg.

Importers at the Mohammad Krishi Market were selling coarse Indian rice at Tk 2,050 a sack, said Mohakhali rice wholesaler Murad. They were selling BR-28 between Tk 2,350 and Tk 2,400 and Miniket at Tk 2,650. The rice market at Badamtali-Babubazar on Thursday had been selling coarse rice (Guti, Swarna, BR-28, Parija) between Tk 42 and 44 per kg. The price before Eid was between Tk 43 and 46.

Fine grain rice (Miniket, Najirshail) was being sold at Tk 50-53 per kg. The price had been between Tk 51-54 before Eid. Flooding in the haor areas of the north and north-east earlier in the year and the resulting destruction of Boro crops had led to fluctuations in the rice market. In response the government lowered import duties on rice from 28 percent to 10 percent before Eid.