Vegetables prices rise in Dhaka as floods hit supplies

Prices of onion have dropped slightly but floods have pushed prices of monsoon vegetables up in Dhaka while the price of green chilli has nearly doubled in a week.

Vegetable prices have increased by at least Tk 10 a kilogram in a week, according to a bdnews24.com survey of kitchen markets at Karwan Bazar, Hatirpool, and Mirpur’s Barobagh on Friday.

The traders were selling snake gourd at Tk 50 per kg, green papaya Tk 35, bitter gourd Tk 60, okra Tk 50, spiny gourd Tk 40, loofa Tk 50, pointed gourd Tk 40, and sponge gourd Tk 40.

These were being sold at up to Tk 15 less per kg a week ago.

Green chilli prices increased to Tk 140 per kg from about Tk 80 of last week.

“Wholesalers have raised the prices as supplies have dropped due to heavy rainfall and floods,” said Mohammad Hossain, a vegetables retailer at Barobagh.

Onion prices, which nearly doubled in a month a week ago, dropped slightly in past three days.

Local varieties were being sold at Tk 45 a kg and the imported ones from India at Tk 40.

The essential cooking ingredient was being sold at up to Tk 52 per kg last week.