Photo : Collected
The prices of most rice varieties saw a sharp decline in the markets in the capital over the last two weeks, with the trend expected to continue for the next two months.
Market experts have attributed the declining trend in rice prices to the good harvest of Boro, one of the main paddy crops in Bangladesh.
Visiting the Karwan Bazar and Mohammadpur Government Krishi markets, it was found that the prices of all medium and coarse varieties of rice fell by up to Tk 3 per kg, compared to the prices a week ago.
Medium fine quality Miniket rice is being sold at Tk 66 per kg, which was Tk 68 last week at the retail level.
In the wholesale market, the price of a 50kg sack of Miniket rice is being sold at Tk 3,215, down by Tk 287 from the previous price of Tk 3,500, said Morshed Alam, a wholesaler at Mohammadpur Government Krishi market.
"Rice prices are going down in the range of Tk 100-150 per 50kg sack on an average. The downward trend is likely to continue for one and a half months," he said.
Even the coarse variety BR-28 is being sold at Tk 52 per kg, down by Tk 3 from the previous price of Tk 55. The price of per 50kg sack has come down to Tk 2,500 from last week’s Tk 2,730-2,750.
About the current rice price, noted economist Dr Jahangir Alam said, “There is no chance for rice prices to increase in the next two months as the overall yield of Aman and Boro has crossed the optimum level."
Dr Alam said that the rice prices are likely to maintain the falling trend in the coming days as the good harvest of Boro is contributing 54 per cent of the total rice output.
“However, the lower rice price trend will not continue for a long period. This is because the Boro yield in the haor area was good, but not up to the mark in other areas across the country due to prolonged drought", said Nirod Baran Saha, general secretary of Rice Arotdar Samity.
He said Boro production witnessed a fall by three to five maunds in a bigha in different areas, except for the haor region, and the haor area contributes only 13 per cent of the total Boro output.
About Boro production, Badal Chandra Biswas, director general of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said, "We are expecting optimum Boro production this year against the production target of 2.22 crore tonnes and the overall yield is standard.”
Data released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) on the production of dry season crop Boro showed that the country bagged 2.07 crore tonnes of the staple grain during the Boro season in FY23, up 3 per cent from the previous fiscal year. Total rice production grew by 2.5 per cent year-on-year to 3.91 crore tonnes, the highest on record, in FY23.
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