Despite being in the middle of the harvesting period the prices of onions increased between 62-71 percent in the last 21 days.
In mid-January, the local variety of onions was selling at Tk 70 to 80 per kg, that by the end of January stood at Tk100 per kg.
Then in the first week of February, onion prices were between Tk 105 and Tk 110 per kg. Yesterday (Friday), the price of a kg onion jumped to Tk120 per kg. Today (Saturday) it was sold in the retail market at Tk130 per kg.
As a result, the price of onion saw an increase by Tk50 per kg in just 21 days.
Alamin Hossain, an onion trader bought onion at wholesale price from Pabna and sold it retail in Dhaka. He said that last week onion was bought wholesale at Tk 80 to 85 per kg in Pabna, and that onion was sold retail at tk100 per kg in the capital.
Last week, onion was bought at Tk 3200 to Tk 3400 per maund (40 kg), now it is Tk 3800 to 3900 per maund in Pabna, he said.
He also said that the harvesting of new Murikata onion is ending. These onions started coming in the market about one and a half months ago, and now the farmer`s onions are at the end.
As a result, the supply began to decrease, and the price of onion suddenly increased due to the lack of supply compared to the demand, said Alamin.
Now the farmer`s main onion, or Hali onion, which is available throughout the year will take some time to harvest. Until then, there may be such additional prices in the market, he pointed out.
Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) Assistant Director (Market Information) Nasir Uddin Talukder told UNB that onion was sold in the market on Friday at Tk 120 per kg.
Last week it was sold at Tk90 per kg, and a month ago it was between Tk 85 to 100. But last year at this time onion was sold between Tk 30 and Tk 40 per kg.
