Traders, millers and the government have given contradictory reasons for the unusual price hike
Rice traders, millers, wholesalers and the government have contradicted each other over unstable rice prices after the per kg retail cost of the staple rose by Tk2 per kg every day this week on average.
On Thursday, various markets in Dhaka were selling Miniket rice at up to Tk68 per kg, a significant rise on the Tk55 mark paid before Eid-ul-Azha, reports Dhaka Tribune.
Coarse rise was up Tk14 to a maximum of Tk54 per kg, while the price for fine quality rice hit Tk70.
Additionally, there was a noticeable variation in prices at the same market with traders saying everyone was selling as they seemed fit in the absence of government monitoring.
Rice traders and warehouse owners have blamed the price hikes on each other, as well as on the recent monsoon floods and excessive rainfall which have made road transportation difficult.
“We sell to the retailers adding very few profits,” Mozammel Haque, a rice trader at Badamtoli-Babu Bazar wholesale market, told the Bangla Tribune. “There is no funny business going on; if there is then the millers are to blame for that.”
Shahidul Haque, a retailer at Karwan Bazar kitchen market and the owner of Swati Enterprise, also blamed the millers while pointing to complications at the ports and customs during rice importing.
“The rice prices are high because of the millers and importers. They have hoarded rice in their personal warehouses. More rice will be found if those are raided,” he said.
