Onion import likely to be allowed, if price goes up further

The agricultural secretary, Wahida Akter, on Sunday said the permission to import onion is likely to be given soon.

"There is no possibility of increasing the price of onion in the market, considering the production and the stock. The agricultural ministry is observing the market. If the price starts hiking, then we will consider the import of onion soon," the secretary further said.

Wahida Akter said this in a meeting at the agricultural ministry conference room at the secretariat in Dhaka on Sunday, said a press release.

According to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), both the local and imported varieties of onion are now sold at Tk 60 to Tk 70 per kg respectively, which was Tk 30 to Tk 45 last month.  

It is said in the meeting that currently the production cost of per kg local variety of onion is Tk 28 to Tk 30. The farmers didn’t get the fair price in the 2021-2022 fiscal as the onion import was open. That’s why the agricultural ministry has suspended the onion import to keep the interest of farmers in onion cultivation. 

It is learnt through the meeting that the production of onions in the country increased by over one million tonnes by the last two years. This year 3.4 million tonnes of onions were produced. Currently, the country has more than 1.8 million tonnes in stock.