No drop in spiralling rice prices in a week after a little cut

Ministers’ meeting with traders and drives against illegal stockpiling helped skyrocketing rice prices drop slightly, but those are yet to come down to a tolerable level.

Traders in Dhaka say the rice mill owners cut the prices once under pressure from the government.

Now, the low-priced imported rice has brought some relief to the market.

At some markets in Dhaka on Friday, retailers were selling Miniket at Tk 3,000 to Tk 3,500 per sack of 50 kilograms. The wholesale price was Tk 2,900.  

A kg of Miniket was retailing at Tk 60 to Tk 61 while its wholesale price was Tk 58.

Before the prices shot up following market manipulation and rumours that India would stop exporting rice during the Eid-ul-Azha, the retail price of Miniket was Tk 52 to Tk 54 per kg.

Prices of other varieties of rice have also dropped but not to the level before the recent hike.

Sakhawat Hossain, a manager of Bikrampur Rice Agency at Rampura, told bdnews24.com that the mill owners cut the prices by up to Tk 150 per sack on Sept 20 and by another Tk 25 after a week.

That was the last drop in rice price, he said.

"But the people are getting coarse rice at a slightly lower rate because of adequate supply from India. A sack of Indian coarse rice costs Tk 2,250 to Tk 2,300 now," he said.

A manager of Satarkul Rice Agency at North Badda, Biplob Hossain, said the prices dropped Tk 4 to Tk 5 per kg by the end of last month.

"But the downtrend stopped a week ago. I've heard the prices would drop more in the future," he said.

But Golam Mostafa, who owns a rice mill in Naogaon, does not see any drop in the prices before the harvest of Ropa Aman.

Rice prices shot up abnormally during the Eid. The retail price of fine variety Nazirshail went up to Tk 70 per kg. Coarse rice prices also rose.

Following the rise in prices, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmeed, Agrculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Food Minister Qamrul Islam and former food minister Abdur Razzaque met rice mill owners, importers, hoarders, wholesalers and retailers at the Secretariat on Sept 19 to arrest the spike.

The mill owners announced a cut in the prices by up to Tk 3 per kg as the government promised to fulfil some of their demands at the time.

The government also relaxed conditions to import rice.

The authorities later seized thousands of sacks of illegally warehoused rice in drives on rice mills and warehouses.