Vegetable prices soar as transport costs rise

The price of all vegetables soared up at the retail markets of the city on Friday.

Market insiders said increased transportation costs reflected in the price of vegetables at both wholesale and retail markets.

They said the cost of transporting vegetables from rural farms to the wholesale markets increased following a rise in price of fuels used by trucks. 

The owners of trucks raised the fare for transporting vegetables at their wish after the government had increased the price of CNG gas and other fuels.

Price of all vegetables went up by at least Tk 5 to Tk 10 per kg at the city's kitchen markets over the last week.

On Friday, tomato was retiled at Tk 30 to Tk 32 per kg, up by Tk 5 over past week at the Polashi Bazar.

Green Papaya (pepe) was retailed at Tk 20 to Tk 25, up by Tk 5 per kg over the week and Jhinga was sold at Tk 30 to Tk 35 up, by Tk 10 per kg at the Kawran Bazar kitchen market.

Snake gourd (chichinga) was retailed at Tk 35 to Tk 40 per kg up by Tk 10 over the last week, aubergine was sold for Tk 30 to Tk 40 per kg, up by Tk 5 and green chilly was retailed at Tk 40 per kg, up by Tk 5 over the previous week at Kawran Bazar.

Wholesalers said that they had to pay Tk 2,000 to Tk 2,500 extra over the charge for one trip after the prices of fuel were increased to transport vegetables by trucks from different rural areas to the capital city.

Abul Kalam, a wholesaler at Kawran Bazar kitchen market said the cost of transportation by truck increased by around Tk 2,500 per trip from the northern region of the country.

'The cost of transportation by truck per trip stood at average Tk 9,000 this week from the areas near the capital including Narsingdi, Manikganj, Munshiganj and Mymenshing,'he said.

Nur Mohammod, another wholesaler at Kawran Bazar said, 'The wholesalers had to pay the extra money demanded by truck-owners for transporting the purchased vegetables as those. And we were forced to pay because these are perishable items. The pressure ultimately goes onto the consumers.'

But the retail price of sugar has decreased a little over the last week in the capital.

On Friday, the prices of almost all other essential commodities, including rice, remained unchanged in the city market compared to the previous week.

At Kawran Bazar kitchen market on Friday, sugar was being retailed at Tk 58 to Tk 60 per kg, down by Tk 2 over the week.

The price of coarse rice at Polashi kitchen market on Friday ranged between Tk 30 and Tk 34 per kg, medium-grade rice between Tk 36 and Tk 40 and the fine varieties of rice between Tk 38 and Tk 50 per kg, posting no change over the week.

The price of loose flour, however, declined by Tk 2 per kg over the week. It was selling at Tk 26 to Tk 28 on Friday.

But the price of packaged flour remained unchanged at Tk 33 to Tk 34 per kg.

 The potato price has eased by Tk 2 per kg over the week to stand at Tk 9 per kg on Friday.

On Friday, loose soya bean oil was selling at Tk 103 to Tk 106 per litre, super palm oil at Tk 94 to Tk 95, and packaged soya bean oil at Tk 115 per litre at the city markets.

The imported varieties of onion were being retailed at Tk 20 to Tk 22 per kg on Friday, but the prices of local varieties have decreased by Tk 2 per kg over the week and they were selling at Tk 22 to Tk 26 on the day.

 On Friday, the local variety of red lentil was being sold for Tk 90 to Tk 95 a kg and the Nepali variety for Tk 96 to Tk 102 per kg.

Beef was being sold on the day at Tk 250 to Tk 260 per kg and broiler at Tk 125 to Tk 130 per kg.

Source: New Age

Call money rate on the rise again

The inter-bank call money rate rose to 12 percent on Thursday due to liquidity shortage in different banks.

The Bangladesh Bank injected Tk 2,068 core in the money market under a repurchase agreement (Repo) on Thursday.

BB also provided Tk. 6470.72 crore as liquidity support facility to the primary dealers.

The call money rate or the interest rate which a bank charges on other banks for lending money for a short period, ranged between 10 percent and 12 percent on the previous day, although the call money rate eased in the last four months after an abnormal rise in December last year.

Bankers said the liquidity pressure was created as Bangladesh Bank (BB) did not provide the required amount of liquidity support to the commercial banks.

BB data shows the weighted average rate of call money was 8.16 percent on 16 May and 6.69 percent on 28 April.

A senior official of a private bank said, 'The call money rate has increased slightly due to inadequate liquidity support through repurchase agreement auction by the central bank.'

A BB official said that the Repo auction will continue in line with the existing monetary policy and the upward trend of call money rate may continue next week.

The Repo rate is the interest rate at which the central bank lends money to commercial banks.

The central bank had earlier selected 15 PDs — 12 banks and three non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) — to handle government securities in the secondary market.

The inter-bank call money rate recorded an unprecedented rise at 190 percent on 19th December last year due to the enforcement of the new cash reserve requirement (CRR) rules for the commercial banks to contain inflation.

Earlier, the call money rate increased up to 150 percent in 2006.

Source: New Age

Increased trucking cost keeps rice price high

The price of coarse rice has remained unchanged over the past one week, despite an increasing supply of the newly harvested Boro rice, as millers stopped reducing the price any further following a rise in trucking cost caused by the recent fuel price hike.

The wholesale price of coarse rice had declined by more than Tk 100 per maund [37.3 kilogram] over the previous two weeks with the newly harvested Boro stocks hitting the market.

On Wednesday, BRRI-28 variety of rice was selling at Tk 1,290 to Tk 1,310 per maund at Babubazar wholesale market in the capital. Its price stood at Tk 1,350 a maund three weeks back.

The price of newly harvested Pari rice at Babubazar ranged between Tk 1,250 and Tk 1,260 per maund on Wednesday, down from Tk 1,400 a maund three weeks ago.

Unsorted Guti variety of rice was wholesaling at the market at Tk 1,100 to TK 1,120 per maund on the day, against Tk 1,250 a maund three weeks back.

'In the past week there has been no change in coarse rice price at this market,' said Altaf Hossian, a Babubazar wholesaler on Wednesday. Altaf and other wholesalers of the market told New Age that millers from northern districts had made no price cut of coarse rice in the past week.

Altaf said, 'May be they are offsetting the increased cost of trucking by keeping the coarse rice prices high.'

Another wholesaler, Bulbul Ahmed, however, said, 'The coarse rice price has remained high because the millers are stockpiling unhusked rice.'

A number of Babubazar traders said the price of coarse rice was not seeing any sharp fall as harvest and supply of Boro rice to market were yet to reach their peak.

Hafez Belal, a miller at Shantahar, told New Age, 'Coarse rice price has remained somewhat stable here over the past week.'

He said truckers were charging higher fares to transport rice from North Bengal mills to wholesale markets across the country following the price hike of diesel and CNG.

A number of millers in North Bengal told New Age that truckers had increased their fare by at least Tk 1,000 for each consignment.

'The increased fuel cost has raised the cost of carrying paddy from rural markets to mills and of transporting rice from mills to markets and thus impacting the rice prices,' said Sabuz Mia, a miller.

The consumers at retail markets said the price of coarse rice had not declined as expected, although the new stocks of rice had already begun to hit the market.

On Wednesday, coarse rice of BRRI-28 and Pari varieties was retailed at Tk 35 to Tk 36 per kilogram, sorted Guti variety at Tk 37 to Tk 38 per kg, and unsorted Guti at Tk 32 to Tk 33 per kilo at Karwan Bazar kitchen market in the city.

Bangladesh Truck and Covered Van Malik Samity general secretary admitted that trucking cost from Naogaon to Dhaka had increased by Tk 500 to Tk 1,000 per trip. 'Individual owners are now setting the trucking fare as the government has not done it yet,' he added.

Source: New Age