Prices of chicken, eggs go up alongside onion

The prices of chicken, egg and vegetables have gone up alongside the price of onion making life a bit more difficult for the people with low income.

Broiler chicken is being sold for Tk140 to 145 per kg, compared to Tk130 to 135 in the last week in various kitchen markets in Dhaka. The price of eggs went up by TK15 per dozen in just a week, as it is being sold for Tk110 to Tk115.

The prices of vegetables have also gone up, with most of the vegetables costing more than Tk50. 

Pointed gourd, eggplant, okra, teasel gourd, snake gourd and other vegetables are selling above Tk50 to 60 per kg. 

Only potatoes and green papayas are being sold for less than Tk50. However, their prices went up too compared to the previous week.

Many consumers expressed their disappointment over the price hike of essential kitchen market commodities.

"Everything is so expensive, what do I buy to prepare food? How can the people of lower income survive like this?" questioned Ashiqul Islam, a private service holder in Jurain.

Afazuddin, a trader in Karwan Bazar said: "The vegetable prices will remain high because vegetables of the winter season are gradually arriving in markets."

Meanwhile, the price of locally grown onions has increased from around Tk60 and Tk80 per kg. 

The government had taken various measures to lower the prices of spices such as the onion, including open market sales and meeting with traders but in vain. 

On Friday, it is found that the retail traders were selling locally grown onion at Tk75 to Tk80 per kg and imported ones at Tk60 to Tk65. Meanwhile, the state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh is selling onion at Tk45 per kg in open market. 

Five trucks are selling onion in ten places across the capital every day. Each person can buy up to 2 kgs of the spice.

On September 13, India set the minimum export price of onions at $850 per tonne to protect their local markets, after floods hampered onion harvest in the state of Maharashtra.

Only a day later, onion prices in Bangladeshi retail markets rose from Tk45 per kg to Tk70.