Price of soybean oil rises by Tk 12 a litre, sugar Tk 13 a kg

Amid the crisis of soybean oil and sugar in local markets, traders have once again increased price of soybean oil by 12 to Tk 190 a litre and sugar by Tk 13 to Tk 108 a kg.

The revised prices came into effect today, Thursday.

Sources of the commerce ministry confirmed the matter.

Sources said Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners and Vanaspati Manufacturers Association and Bangladesh Sugar Refiners Association informed the ministry about their decision of the price hike on Wednesday separately.

Prior to informing the ministry leaders of both associations held several meeting with Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission on matter.

According to the new decision, 1 litre of bottled soybean oil will sell at Tk 190, which was Tk 178 earlier. In the case of a 5-litre bottle, the price rose by Tk 45 to Tk 925 from Tk 880.

The price of unpackaged soybean oil has been hiked by Tk 14 to Tk 172 a litre. Apart from that, the price of unpackaged palm oil rose to Tk 121 a litre.

A 1-kilogram (kg) packet of sugar will sell at Tk 108, instead of Tk 95. But the market price has been over Tk 1oo for the past couple of days. There was even a sugar crisis at the retail market. As per the new price, a 50-kg sack of sugar will cost Tk 5100.

Earlier on 3 October, the soybean oil price was slashed by Tk 14 a litre at the retail level.

Later, the refiners submitted a proposal to the commerce ministry on 1 November, to hike the price by Tk 15 a litre amid the high price of unrefined oil in the international market and depreciation of taka against dollar. They proposed to set the price at Tk 193 per litre.