Published : 07 Jan 2023, 02:50 AM
Updated : 07 Jan 2023, 02:54 AM
Dhaka’s Pirerbagh resident Arman Rahman had decided to turn the weekly grocery run into a monthly one on Thursday as he was looking to purchase a 50kg-sack of rice for his family of three.
The man thought since freshly cultivated rice from the Aman season has hit the market, the red hot market price of rice, which was skyrocketing since September last year, may have cooled down a little like the previous years.
He found out the hard way that he still can’t afford the family’s choice of the staple- Paijam rice- as the price of Tk 55 per kg was too hot to handle for him.
An utterly disappointed Arman eventually decided to stick to his weekly routine and bought a 5kg pack of Paijam rice and left.
“The new rice [freshly cultivated rice] in in the market for at least a month now. But I don’t see any sign of the price going down. The price is the same as before,” Arman said with a frustrated tone.
He was not completely wrong.
A recent visit to multiple retailers and wholesale markets of rice in Dhaka revealed that the prices of medium-grade and coarse rice have reduced very slightly-Tk 2 per kg on average, but the prices of different qualities of rice remain too high compared tothe price at the same point in 2022.
According to the latest Trading Corporation of Bangladesh or TCB data, the price of fine-grade rice, medium-grade rice and coarse rice has fallen by three percent, 2.5 percent and five percent, respectively ,in the last one month. But it was still too high, 2.5 percent, 5.5 percent and 3 percent, respectively, higher than at the same point a year ago.
THE MARKET OF RICE PRICES
Retailers and wholesalers interviewed categorically admitted that usually at this point of the year, the price of rice usually falls with the injection of the supply of freshly cultivated rice and a dip in demand as families shift their spending priorities to more pressing matters, that is, covering admissions fees of the children at schools.
However, this year that pattern of dropping prices has yet to emerge.
Grocer Abdur Razzak at Dhaka’s Pirerbagh said he has been ordering less rice from the wholesalers as he is still hoping for the price to drop
“Sales have dropped quite a lot. But the price is still pretty high. I've been buying less from the wholesalers at Mirpur 1 area, hoping that I would stock more once the price drops significantly,” he said.
The government targeted to collect at least 500,000 metric tonnes of rice this Aman season at Tk 1120 per 40 kg of rice, but so far only managed to procure 150,000 metric tonnes of rice from the open market at the rate.
The reason, market insiders say, is that the actual wholesale rate is around Tk 1300-1400 per 40 kg and wholesalers are preferring to sell it to retailers at that rate than to the government.
Md Harun, manager of wholesaler Janata Rice Agency at Mirpur Shah Ali Market, said he does not see any indication that the price of the fine-grade rice could fall before the production of the Boro season comes to the market.
“The price of medium-grade and coarse rice has fallen slightly, around Tk 80 to Tk 100 per sack [50 kg]. But the price of fine-grade rice is still pretty high, which may not go down before the end of the Boro season,” he said.
Harun said their sales have dropped significantly too.
“Usually we expect a drop in December as people’s spending priorities shift due to school admissions. But we're in January now, and the trend has not changed,” he said.
Md Ferdous, staff at the wholesaler Mayer Doa Rice Agency in the West Shewrapara area in Mirpur, is, however, hopeful that in the coming weeks the price would drop significantly and their sale would increase.
“We're hoping that the price will drop. We've just procured the bulk of freshly cultivated rice from the market," he said, "but there’s hardly any buyers. Things may change in the coming weeks, I think."
