Onion supply comes down to 30 percent at Khatunganj market
A huge demand and supply side gap lingers
Onion supply has come down to 30 percent at the country's largest wholesale market Khatunganj of Chattogram.
The crisis has deepened due to India's onion export ban, the traders of the market said.
Though onion is now being imported from Myanmar and Egypt, there is still a great demand and supply side gap, they claimed.
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The limited stock of onion is lowering supplies to retail markets, they explained.
General Secretary of Khatunganj Hamid Ullah Market's Traders' Welfare Association, Mohammad Idris said, some 51 business organisations import onion to this market which is sold to places across the country at a wholesale price.
"We saw 20 to 30 trucks with 260 to 300 tonne of onions entering this market daily, but the current scenario is totally different," he said.
Currently, some eight to 10 trucks come to Khatunganj market from Myanmar with around 14 tonnes of onions. Though another 30 to 40 trucks carrying onion also arrive from Myanmar, they are discharged at Teknaf, and are instantly supplied to the country's other districts, he said.
Although onions are now being imported from Myanmar and Egypt, it is unlikely that the current crisis will soon be over, Idris said.
A total of 5,947 tonne of onions were imported from Egypt, Myanmar, China, Turkey, the UAE, and Pakistan from September 29 to November 13, this year through this port, according to the data of Plant Quarantine Wing of Chattogram port.
3306 tonnes were imported from Egypt, 1288 tonnes from Myanmar, 873 tonnes from China, 112 tonnes from the UAE, 139 tonnes from Pakistan, and 86 tonnes from Turkey.
As India had imposed a ban on the export of onions on 29 September, Bangladeshi traders opened Letter of Credits (LCs) to import 66,000 tonnes of onions through Chattogram port. But only 6,000 tonnes have reached the port.
Anwar Parvej, manager of Chattogram Banijjalay, an onion importing organisation at Khatunganj market said, "All of our depots are open. Small traders came for onion, but we could not supply them anything."
