State Minister for Commerce Ahsanul Islam Titu on Sunday said that the government would be able to supply onion and sugar, imported from India, to the market before the holy month of Ramadan.
“Already a proposal for importing 50,000 metric tons of onion and one lakh metric tons of sugar was sent to India and got assurance from them about 20,000 metric tons of onion and 50,000 metric tons of sugar. However, we hope we would be able to import products as per our demand,” he said while talking to reporters at the Bangladesh Secretariat.
He said the foreign minister got assurance from India about onion and sugar supply adding, “We’ll get good news over it within Thursday,” he said.
Besides, the government is trying to import daily essentials from other neighbouring countries, he said.
A meeting of the task force committee will be held on Tuesday, said Ahsanul, adding the price of edible oil is expected to be re-fixed in the meeting.
The state minister also said that the government would ensure market monitoring at the field level during Ramadan and after fixing the price of edible oil it would take measures to prevent hike in oil prices.
The sale of these goods peaks in Ramadan, and since these are imported from overseas, the dollar shortage has resulted in a supply crunch, according to importers.
Some traders stockpiling the goods are also responsible for the supply shortage, they added.
According to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, which collects data from 12 kitchen markets in the capital, the prices of 1kg sachets of refined flour rose by 3.57 percent, and unpacked refined flour by 8 percent since mid-December.
Bangladesh has been witnessing a gradually worsening shortage of the American greenback since the Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022.
Besides, the taka has lost 28 percent of its value against the dollar since February 2023, making imports significantly costlier.
