FT ONLINE

The government today (Tuesday) morning sent a total of 10 teams, each led by a joint secretary, to as many districts for monitoring the supply, price, and stock of the key essential item to the market, officials said.

Just before their journey to the districts concerned, an additional secretary of the commerce ministry briefed them at the Secretariat, they said.

The districts that the teams have been sent to are Cox's Bazar, Chattogram, Faridpur, Rajbari, Jashore, Dinajpur, Pabna, Satkhira, Sirajganj and Shariatpur.

While visiting both the retail and wholesale markets in the districts concerned, they will take action against hoarding and artificial price hike of the item if found, the officials said.

The commerce ministry issued an office order today (Tuesday) morning in this regard.

Earlier yesterday (Sunday), commerce secretary Md Jafar Uddin said the teams would visit mainly production hubs of onion and talk to the deputy commissioners (DCs) concerned how to prevent hoarding and ensure adequate supply of the essential spice item in the market.

Just a day after India's onion export ban, on Monday, the country's markets witnessed an increase of onion prices up to Tk 50 per kilogram, which market observers described as 'artificial'.

That prompted the government to form the 10 teams and send them to the districts for monitoring the market in efforts to check the galloping onion price.

Bangladesh is a major importer of the Indian onion and so any price change of the spice price in the neighbouring country spills over the border onto the country's market.

Earlier yesterday, Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) secretary Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan said poor market monitoring encouraged traders to raise the prices whimsically.

The country produced 1.9 million tonnes and imported a total of 1.1 million tonnes of onion this year.

"So, there was no logic behind the prices going up by such a big margin. The demand for onion is estimated at 2.4 million tonnes," he added.