Govt may be at fault for onion price hike, concedes agriculture minister

Abdur Razzaque believes the government may have played a part in the rampant hike in onion prices.

"We didn't anticipate the ban on onion exports by India. We may have been at fault there," the agriculture minister said at a programme organised by the Rice Research Institute in Gazipur.

"We should have assessed how many tonnes of onions were being produced domestically and how much we needed to import."

The government should have sought out other import partners instead of relying on one country for key cooking ingredient, according to Razzaque.

Farmers could not create adequate onion stocks as a large portion of the harvest was destroyed by rains last year, said the minister. This triggered a shortage of the crop in the country.

Onion prices began to soar after India banned exports to control domestic prices in September, prompting the government to take several measures to tame the skyrocketing price.

Prices continued to spiral after Cyclone Bulbul that struck the coastline on Nov 9 squeezed supplies and hovered around Tk 250, a record in Bangladesh.

To deal with the situation, the government decided to import onions from Egypt, Turkey, China and other countries.

It later decided to import onion by air for faster shipments.

The government has also decided to waive cargo handling charges on onion imports on the flights of flag carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines.