Edible oil prices increasing
Local consumers will have to spend more about edible oil as prices are growing in the foreign market almost every week due to decreased production in exporting countries, weakening of supply chain and stockpiling amid the pandemic.
Retailers say soybean essential oil prices in the domestic market have increased by from Tk 10 to Tk 15 per kilogramme the past month.
Now bottled ones are available for Tk 115 to Tk 120 per kg while that sold loose for Tk 110 to Tk 112.
Retailers were found advertising one litre containers of Rupchanda brand in Tk 120 to Tk 125 whereas it was Tk 110 per month ago.
In case of its five-litre containers, the costs now range between Tk 580 to Tk 590 against a former Tk 520.
In the same way, the prices of one litre containers of Teer, Pushti and other brands contain jumped to Tk 113 to Tk 120 against a previous Tk 100 to Tk 105. For five litres it has truly gone up to Tk 570 from Tk 510.
Anam Ahmed, a store at Hamzarbag Market found in Chattogram city, said they were charging higher rates as the refiners had slowly but surely done the same weekly during the past couple of months.
"All the refiners have increased oil prices and also reduced supplies due to an import crisis and soaring prices found in the international market," he added. The same was said to have took place for wholesale prices of edible essential oil at Chattogram's Khatunganj, one of the country's greatest wholesale commodity hubs.
Soybean oil prices there rose by Tk 350 per maund (around 37.3 kg) to about Tk 4,180 to Tk 4,200. Similarly, palm oil today costs around Tk 3,600 to Tk 3,650 per maund, a rise around Tk 275-Tk 300.
"The price of the products is bigger as the way to obtain oil is less than the marketplace demand," said wholesaler Abdur Rahman.
Soybean oil price has risen from Tk 3,100 in a number of phases to Tk 4,200 per maund in the last four weeks. Similarly, the cost of palm oil has also increased from Tk 2,950 to Tk 3,650 per maund, he said.
The prices went up almost every week for a shortage, he added.
A lot of the country's demand for soybean oil is met through imports from Brazil and Argentina where creation has declined as a result of pandemic, said Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, director of the TK Band of Industries.
"The export-import chains happen to be yet to normalise as a result of coronavirus situation."
However, large countries, including China, are stockpiling edible oil amid the probable threat of a second wave of the virus in the wintertime, which could once more fuel the costs, he told The Daily Star.
