Every single year, Bangladesh faces problems with onions. Just as a class of excessively profiteering traders is to blame for this, concerned ministries cannot avoid responsibility either. At times, the market turns unstable also for the lack of coordination on their part.
The main problem is that like many other consumer items, the demand of onions in Bangladesh surpasses production. That’s why we are bound to rely on imports. When there’s less production in the country, the amount of imports grows more that year and vice versa.
Bangladesh imports onions mostly from India. The Indian government imposing a 40 per cent duty on onion exports lately has had an impact on the Bangladeshi market as well. The notice issued by the Indian government stated that the duty on onion export will continue till 31 December.
As a consequence of India imposing a 40 per cent duty on onion export, Tk 7 will be collected as average duty per kilogram. In that ratio, the price of Indian onions in Bangladesh is also supposed to increase by Tk 7 per kg. But the price of onions in the Bangladesh market has been hiked by Tk 15 per kg.
In this context, the government decided to import onions from nine other countries. These countries are: China, Egypt, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, Myanmar, Thailand, the Netherlands and United Arab Emirates.
The agriculture ministry had initially imposed a ban on onion import this year since the production had been good. But the ban was lifted in June as the price had gone up. Though the commerce ministry had made recommendations for onion import beforehand, the agriculture ministry didn’t take that into consideration.
Now the question is, if the market will be stable after onion has been imported from these nine countries or not. How much longer will the fluctuation of onion prices continue? Every time we see, the price hike in the market is way higher than the amount of duty increased or imposed on the import of goods.
On the other hand, the goods which arrived at the port under previous LCs that too goes through a price hike on various excuses. But commodities which see a price drop in the international market, don’t face much of a price reduction at the local market.
As reported in the newspaper, a trader at the news of India increasing the duty tax on onion export directed his employees to stop the sales of onion at his shop and to quickly buy out onions from other shops as well.
It doesn’t seem the government has taken any effective measures against such opportunist and extra profit reaping traders.
Policy makers of the government often blame the syndicate for making the market of different commodities unstable now and then. But that syndicate is never exposed though. Meanwhile, a state minister had commented that there’s a syndicate inside the government itself but didn’t mention any names.
If the government really wants to protect the interest of common consumers, the decision to import also has to be taken beforehand. If the decision to import onion comes after the price hike, it goes in favour of the corrupt traders.