THE food inflation that has remained high for more than two years now reached double digits once again in April after a gap of four months. The Bureau of Statistics in its monthly update says that food inflation was 10.22 per cent in April. The surge was, as economists say, caused by an increase in prices of food items such as chicken, beef, lentils, sugar, eggs and spices during Eid-ul-Fitr in April in the absence of an effective price oversight. Food inflation has, in fact, remained high since mid-2022, after a sudden, abnormal increase in prices of fuel and energy, reaching a record 12.56 per cent in October 2023. Since then, food inflation has often reached double-digit figures or hovered just below. Prices of staple items increased by 20鈥�100 per cent in two years although food prices declined on the international market. The government and its agencies often admit that the market is volatile, mostly putting down the reason on the international market, that there is market manipulation and that the situation is concerning. And, yet the government fails to show the dynamism needed to check the food inflation that has pushed low- and fixed-income people into a difficult situation, where the poor households have been forced to cut their food intake.
Weak market management, poor policies, insufficient and ill-timed imports, the high cost of fuel oils and gas and errant businesses are believed to have pushed food inflation up. It is unacceptable that the government, which admits to market manipulation, has failed to go tough on the manipulators. The commerce ministry on two occasions put price caps on essential food items but could not make traders follow the prices. The sudden, sharp increase in prices of eggs by Tk 15鈥�20 a dozen in the past two weeks suggests a market manipulation as the demand for eggs on the domestic market is met with local production. The government earlier found wholesalers and big businesses behind the price increase and fined them. On January 23, the Competition Commission fined two poultry farms Tk 3.5 crore in all for their alleged collusive practices in artificially increasing prices of eggs. The increase in prices of edible oils and rice also suggests market manipulation by creating an artificial supply shortage. What is also unacceptable is that while the government has continued to blame the volatility on the international market for the runaway food inflation, food prices have, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation price index, been falling steadily since hitting an all-time high in March 2022 in the wake of the Ukraine-Russia war.
The authorities must realise that lacklustre efforts will not make any difference. They must go tough on market manipulators. The authorities must show the dynamism needed to contain food inflation. In so doing, it must establish an effective market monitoring mechanism. The authorities must also enhance their support programmes to give low-income people some relief from the inflationary pressure.