Tipu advises less onion consumption

Advising people to consume less onion, commerce minister Tipu Munshi on Sunday said the ministry could not predict about when the price of onion would decrease.

The minister came up with the remark at a press conference at the Parliament Media Centre after a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on commerce ministry.

He said depending only on India to import onion was a wrong decision and the price would be decrease after onions would land form other countries as the government already started importing onions from Egypt and Turkey.

At the press conference, the JS body chairman and former commerce minister Tofail Ahmed said there was no syndicate in the market and the businessmen are friend of the government.

He said the committee decided to hold a meeting at commerce ministry with the stakeholders including commerce ministry, agriculture ministry, Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, National  Board of Revenue, Bangladesh Bank, and top onion importers within a week to control the price of the commodity before the month of Ramadan.

He said the ministry would make the necessary assessment at the meeting to avoid such ‘unfortunate’ price hike of onion in future.

Tofail advised the media to not to publish of reports of price hike and avoid publishing negative reports.

He advised the people to cultivate onion at free spaces of their house compounds.

He said Bangladesh would be an onion exporting country by two years.

Tipu Munshi said the lone way to resolve the situation is increasing domestic production of onion and upholding the growers’ interest.

He said the domestic onions would hit the market by the end of December and imported onion from Egypt already stared to land in ports.

The price of onion will decrease to Tk 40 to Tk 45 after the full placed import started from Egypt, he said.

He said India ensured to resume exporting onion in Bangladesh after Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election, held on October 21, but it did not resume the export.

According to the TCB, the price of onion, a common item in Bangladeshi kitchen, witnessed a 557.80 per cent year-on-year rise.

According to the TCB data, the price of local variety increased by 542.86 per cent while that of imported variety one by 572.73 per cent in November this year compared to the corresponding period of the last year.

As per the market analysis, the price hike, which stemmed from the ban India slapped on the export of the bulb on September 29, is much higher than the TCB estimation.

The onion price began to go up in the mid-September and crossed Tk250 a kilogram in November.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net