PRICES of onions, eggs of farm chickens and vegetables registered a fresh increase on the kitchen market in Dhaka in the past week. Prices of onions registered the highest increase of Tk 20 a kilogram, that too, in a couple of days. Onions on August 8 sold for Tk 80–85 a kilogram, up from Tk 60–65. The prices, however, ranged between Tk 65 and Tk 70 on the wholesale market. Egg prices increased to Tk 135?–140 a dozen, up from Tk 125–130 a week ago. Vegetable prices also increased on the market in neighbourhoods by Tk 10–20. Prices of broilers, which sold for Tk 160–170 on the wholesale market such as Karwan Bazar and were retailed for Tk 170–180, are reported to have remained high for a few weeks. Consumers say that the sudden increase in prices, especially of the three items, has hit hard low- and middle-income families, creating a significant burden on the household budget of consumers. The price increase, especially of eggs, could harm people’s protein intake when beef sells for Tk 750-780 a kilogram and mutton for Tk 1,100-1,250 a kilogram. Traders, however, put the reason for the price increase down to a supply shortage caused by excessive rainfall in recent weeks.
Whilst some blame excessive monsoon rain, for which a large portion of the stock of onions has rotted, for the supply shortage, some others blame disruption in the transport caused by the rainfall. Yet, some traders seek to say that the production of eggs declined during the monsoon season, noting that this is a typical happening. Traders have come up with disruption in the supply chain as a reason to explain the increase in prices of chicken and eggs. Whilst some of the explanation could be true, what remains for the government to see is if the claims are, indeed, true in the case at hand. This is because traders have customarily come up with the same reasons whenever prices have increased in the past. With no visible government intervention in market oversight and price control, such explanations of traders generally leave doubt on whether what they say is true. But the price increase that has happened calls for government intervention, especially when people are largely constrained by inflation, in monitoring the kitchen market, retail and wholesale, the supply chain, which traders say has been harmed by disruption in transport, and decline in production.
The government should, therefore, lift a finger high enough to keep goods prices within the reach of the poor, low- and fixed-income people with measures carried out sustainably.
