At least 60,000 tonnes of onions are being shipped in from Turkey and Egypt to redress the scarcity of onions in local Bangladesh markets. This was important after the imports from Myanmar failed to alleviate the crisis sparked by India's indefinite ban on exports of the commodity in September.
Bangladesh requires 2.4 million tonnes of onions a year, say government statistics. The country usually imports 1.1 million tonnes of onion from neighbouring India on top of the domestic production to meet the demand. Under the circumstances, the government opted to import onions from Myanmar while engaging its trading arm Trading Corporation of Bangladesh to sell the product in a bid to ease prices.
Raids on wholesale markets were also conducted and while the moves did trigger a slight drop, prices once again spiralled up to Tk 120 (€1.24) in the last week.
The ‘landing cost’ of a kilogram of onion from Myanmar was Tk 42 (€0.44) a fortnight ago, which increased to Tk 70 (€0.77) on Sunday, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi told bdnews24.com on Monday. “We are facing a problem as Myanmar has also doubled the export price to push it beyond $800.”
The onion prices will drop once the imports arrive in the country, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said at a media briefing on Tuesday.
