Why didn’t the decision to import onions come earlier?
The price of onion in the wholesale market is going down swiftly after the news of allowing import from India was published. According to Prothom Alo reports, the price of local onions has dropped by Tk 20 per kg in Shyambazar and Karwan Bazar in Dhaka and Khatunganj in Chattogram.
As the price of onion increased exorbitantly, it was decided to allow import to protect the interests of consumers along with reducing the hardship of fixed income people, said a notification of the Ministry of Agriculture on Saturday.
Import permit or IP is required from the plant quarantine wing of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) to import onions.
Considering the interests of the farmers, the ministry stopped allowing the import of onions from 15 March.
There has been a tussle between the ministries of agriculture and commerce over permission to import onions for quite some time. The commerce secretary had sent a letter to the agriculture secretary on 14 May to seek approval to import onion at a limited level. At that time, the price of onion was Tk 70 to Tk 80 per kg, double than the price a month ago. According to Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) data, onions were bought and sold at Tk 90-100 per kg in Dhaka on Sunday.
Not having accurate information of onion production resulted in such complication regarding the onion import. According to the information of the DAE, more than 3.4 million tonnes of onions have been produced in the country this year. Annual demand of onion in the country is 2.6-2.8 million tonnes. At present the stock of onion in the country is 1.83 million tonnes. Import of onion would not be needed if the information was accurate. But in reality a significant amount of onion has to be imported every year.
According to traders, 70 per cent of the demand of onion is locally produced. The remaining 30 per cent has to be imported. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, a little over 2.5 million tonnes of onions were produced in the fiscal 2021–22.
The agricultural extension department claims there is no shortage of onion in the market. If the claim is true, there is no plausible reason for the price of the kitchen essential to soar almost two times or more.
A few days ago agriculture minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque said there is a huge amount of stock of onion in the country. That time he further said the government would give approval to import the product if the price does not decline. But the price had crossed Tk 100 per kg by the time the import approval was given. The unscrupulous quarter has already made profit from this scope. If the decision had been taken in mid May as per the request of the commerce ministry, consumers would not have to face the heat of exorbitant price hike.
Surely the agriculture ministry will take care of the interests of farmers and the commerce ministry of the interests of consumers. But the sufferings of general people know no bounds if there appears an incoordination in steps between the two ministries.
To protect the farmers, the import duty for onion has to be imposed in such a way so that the cost of the imported product remains higher than the production cost in the country – the government should take this analysis of trade experts into consideration for the sake of general consumers. As a result, there will be imports and at the same time the price will not slump.
The price of onion would decrease if Indian onion hits the market. In that case, the question is how would the agriculture ministry avoid its responsibility as people had to buy the product at such a high price for the last two months?
We must not forget that the price of every daily necessary is high in the market. The country in May recorded the highest inflation rate (9.94 per cent) in the last 11 years. Why this procrastination when it was essential to take a decision quickly to ease the people’s sufferings?