New year begins with pressure of market costs.
The common people of the country are tired of fighting food inflation. The entire year of 2024 has been spent suffering from inflation. For eight consecutive months – April to November, the country’s food inflation has been in the double digits point to point. The latest estimate is that food inflation reached 13.80 percent in November last year.
That is, the food product that one bought for 100 taka in November the previous year had to be bought for about 114 taka in November last year. The new year has started in such a reality. Within a year, the prices of almost all kinds of daily necessities starting from rice, pulses, and oil to fish, meat, and spices went up to unbearable levels. Therefore, the common people want relief in the market in the new year.
The latest November estimate of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, or BBS, says food inflation increased by 1.14 percent in November compared to October 2024 to 13.80 percent. Food inflation, which was 10.76 percent in November 2023, has increased by 3.04 percent in a year. People of low and limited income cannot afford such high costs of food. Poor and hard-working people are most vulnerable.
According to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh market report, except for a few products, the prices of most daily necessities have increased significantly in the last one year. However, the actual price in the market has increased even more. The increased price of rice is putting consumers under great pressure. As per TCB, fine rice has become costlier by 14.07 percent in a year, medium rice by 17.14 percent, coarse rice consumed by the poor has become dearer by 7.14 percent a kg. Pulses have also become costlier. Moong, chickpea and angora pulses have shown the highest increase. According to TCB, in a year, the prices of small-grain lentil increased by 1.89 percent, moong dal by 43.48 percent and chickpea by 37.84 percent. And the price of anchor dal for the poor increased by 7.14 percent in a year.
In a year, the prices of soybean in the bottle increased by 1.48 to 2.11 percent. Price of open soybeans for the low-income people increased more, 4.44 percent. The open palm oil price also increased as much as 22.35 percent. In recent times, the price of onion and potato decreased. On the other hand, the price of local garlic, ginger and turmeric increased. Cardamom price in the spice market also went up 68 percent in a year. The price of cinnamon, bay leaves and coriander have also gone up.
Price hike in beef and mutton has gone up by 19.23 per cent and 10.5 per cent respectively in the meat market. Poor people relied on chicken in the high-priced market. And its price has also increased in the last one year. According to TCB, the price of broiler chicken has gone up by about 11 percent per kg. The price of farm eggs, considered an easily available source of protein, has also become unaffordable. The price per hali (4 pieces) has increased by 9.20 percent. Prices have also gone up at the fish market.
The high rise in the cost of living within a year has brought darkness before the eyes of low-income people. Middle-class people are also losing appetite. Everyone wants to be relieved from this unbearable pressure of cost.
Md. Ali Ahmed, a day laborer in Karwan Bazar, told The Business Standard over the phone, “Whatever money I make by working as a day laborer in the market all day has to be spent struggling to buy rice, pulses, and oil after paying house rent. I have stopped eating fish, meat, eggs, and all these. Even then, the accounts do not add up. When shall we get rid of this cost pressure?
Economist Dr. Zahid Hossain told The Independent, “A new strategy needs to be adopted in order to keep the market under control”. He further said, “Many defects have taken place in market management. That is clear. We are stuck with the old strategy. The previous government did these things too. There is no solution. Efforts are being made to control them through police methods like raids and fines. But where police methods are needed, they are not being applied. Again, there is a huge lack of competition. Extortion has started again. Duty exemptions are being given, but even though traders enjoy them, consumers remain deprived. Therefore, walking on the old path will not work. We have to get to the root of the problem.
Market stakeholders also said the same thing. Md. Mosharraf Hossain, wholesale traders of Karwan Bazar, say that prices are being increased in the rice market as before. If the price is increased at the mill gate, then the price in the market also increases. Recently, it has suddenly increased to Tk 300 per sack (50 kg).
Md. Sumon Howlader, president of Bangladesh Poultry Association, further said that broiler chicken and farm eggs, once the widely available sources of protein in the country, are made expensive products by manipulation from the syndicate circle of business. The market is being created by capturing the market for one-day-old chicks and feed. Now, prices are being fixed through mobile phones every day without based on production costs, like before.
Shyambazar onion wholesaler Kanai Saha and others said, “The market is operating as usual. Commission trading is still on. The market is going up and down according to the prices quoted on mobile phones.”.
SM Nazer Hossain, the vice president of the consumers’ rights organization Consumers Association of Bangladesh – CAB, said that such information also comes up in government investigation and monitoring campaigns. Many of the accused organizations are being fined. But even after the new year, nothing changes. Even though we have laws, we do not see their implementation. Unscrupulous people are getting away with it again and again, and consumers are losing money.
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