Scarcity of supply: Who possesses how much oil

The imported oil of Bashundhara group is supposed to dominate the retail market at this moment, followed by five other groups, including City, Meghna, Bangladesh Edible Oil limited, T.K and Sena Kalyan Sangstha.

These six companies imported 80 million litres of soybean oil to the market in April.

Sources said the Bashundhara Group supplied the highest share of oil to the market, at 30.25 million litres in April. The figure for City group was 10.43 million, which is slightly higher than that of Meghna group, at 10.30 million.

The shares of Bangladesh Edible Oil and T.K Group were almost similar as the former one imported 8.8 million litres while the latter accounted for 8.7 million.

The contribution of Sena Kalyan ranked last with the import of 5.4 million litres.

After the emergence of the oil crisis in the market, the consumers’ rights protection directorate monitored every step, ranging from oil import to marketing, in a bid to mitigate the oil shortage in retail levels.

However, due to the huge number of sellers at the retail level, it is not going to be fully supervised. Although the companies supplied the oil to the markets through dealers, the people are not getting them.

The City Group director Biswajit Saha said, "We supply soybean oil to the market every day. Where is so much soybean oil going? It is certain that the imported oil is being kept to a stage."

The edible oil market has become volatile since the Russia-Ukraine war.

Then, in mid-March, Argentina announced that they will limit oil export. And from 28 April, Indonesia stopped exporting palm oil. Imports have also started declining in the last two months due to abnormal price hike.