Onion brings tears for Dhaka residents as prices skyrocket ‘beyond low-income people’s reach’

Onion prices have skyrocketed in Dhaka in a day to Tk 170-180 a kilogram, and Tk 200 for the best variety, from Tk 140-150, forcing many residents to return home from the market dumbfounded without the cooking ingredient.

Some consumers say the prices have gone beyond their reach while some traders are mulling about stopping onion sale to avoid being sworn at by angry customers.

An essential part of most dishes in Bangladesh, the prices of onion made many raise their eyebrows at the kitchen markets in the capital as a cyclone forced a halt on import through the maritime ports and inland transportation earlier this week.

At Mirpur’s Pirerbagh, five customers, who came to a shop for onion within a span of half an hour, started to check the other grocers.

Four of them returned home without buying onion as the others were asking the same prices, between Tk 170 and Tk 200 a kg.

The other customer bought half a kg.

A woman came and asked for two kilograms of onion.

She appeared astonished and returned home empty-handed when the trader asked for Tk 340 after packing the item.

“I told her that the local variety is priced at Tk 170 and the imported one Tk 140. She thought I had said only Tk 70,” the trader told bdnews24.com, adding that such incidents were occurring often nowadays.

Another trader at Barhabagh in Mirpur said: “The situation is terrible. People now want to buy Tk 10 of onion. But when we tell them that 100 grams price Tk 17, they use swear words in rebuke to us. What can we do?” 

Murad Hossain, a grocer in the area, said he bought onion at Tk 155 a kg from the wholesale market at Mirpur-1 on Tuesday and was selling each kg for Tk 170, after adding the transport cost and profit margin.

“But I am yet to sell half the lot. So I didn’t go to buy more today. The customers are using swear words. It’s better to halt onion sale for now,” he said. 

“If we have to spend Tk 200 on onion, how can we buy other things?” a customer in her fifties asked.

“I haven’t seen onion being so expensive in my life. It’s impossible for the people with low income to eat onion anymore,” she remarked.

Traders and customers at Moghbazar gave similar reactions to the onion price hike.

The prices spiked for the last time when Cyclone Bulbul struck Bangladesh on Saturday night.

Retail prices increased to Tk 140-150 per kg from Tk 110-120 at the time.

On Wednesday, wholesalers at Dhaka’s Shyambazar market complained of a lack of supply.

They also claimed they were counting losses despite a price hike as sales have dropped.

“Supply has almost stopped. No onion, no customer,” Alhaj Banijyo Bitan Director Amitabh Kundu told bdnews24.com.

They were selling the local variety at Tk 150 per kg and those imported from Egypt between Tk 115 and 120.

“There is a true lack of supply in the market. That’s why the government’s drives, fines and jailing could not push the prices down,” wholesaler Mostafa Kamal of Mirpur-1 said. 

“And the cyclone created problem in supply of imported onion leading to this situation,” he claimed.

When the prices shot up following India’s ban on onion export by the end of September, the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh started selling the cooking ingredient at Tk 45 a kg, with every customer allowed one kg, at different points in Dhaka and some other districts.

The sale by the government agency on trucks stopped on Tuesday after resumption on Monday following a three-day halt for holidays.

“We could not sell onion on Tuesday due to a lack of supply. Trucks loaded with onion imported from Myanmar are on way to Dhaka from Teknaf. We hope the sale will resume on Thursday if the consignment arrives by Wednesday night,” TCB spokesman Humayun Kabir said.