Amid India's recent ban on onion export, the government of Bangladesh has permitted local traders to import the commodity from ten other countries. The sharp price hike following the ban has now been curbed due to a sufficient supply of the local early season breed in the domestic market.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, traders have been granted permits to import onions from at least ten countries following the sudden increase in India's export duty since August. In the coming days, Bangladesh expects to import onions from China, Egypt, Myanmar, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Qatar, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the USA.
Although onion shipments have already arrived from nearly half of these countries, traders have yet to bring the product from Egypt, Myanmar, the Netherlands, Qatar and Turkey. However, Bangladeshi onion traders say they will not use the import permits they received from the government for fear of incurring losses.
The government said Bangladesh has imported more than 700,000 tons of onions, including 600,000 tons from India, in the current financial year, against import permits for over 2 million tons.
In the last three days, onion prices have returned to their previous rate of Tk 100-Tk 130 at some places in Dhaka as demand fell sharply after the price hike.
[ Tk 100 = €0.84 ]
Source: bdnews24.com