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Suggests handling situation in days
Sk Bashir Uddin, a commerce adviser, stated yesterday that the short-term situation in the edible oil market will be handled in a few days.
He asserted that the government is not more powerful than the syndicate that controls the prices of vital commodities.
Bangladesh’s Edible Oil Crisis Resolved
“The government keeps track of the stock and supply of various products in the country, and the present edible oil crisis will be resolved soon.”
Following an inspection of the manufacturing activities at the newly privately managed Daulatpur Jute Mills in Khulna, the adviser made the remarks while briefing reporters.
In the meanwhile, when the government denied refiners’ demands to hike prices in January, shopkeepers and wholesalers in key cities including Dhaka, Chattogram, and Barishal told The Daily Star on Sunday that the supply of oil has decreased.
However, after meeting with the refiners on Sunday, the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC) came to the conclusion that there isn’t now a scarcity of edible oil in the nation.
Edible Oil Supply Crisis in Bangladesh
According to the committee, the continuing edible oil problem is man-made, and local markets are overstocked with the culinary component.
Since local kitchen stores were experiencing a scarcity of both branded bottled and non-branded loose soybean oil, which led to a price increase, the BTTC met with the nation’s top refiners to review the state of the edible oil supply.
Top refiners told the gathering that there isn’t a supply shortage in the market and that, in January of this year, their supply of soybean oil climbed by 25% year over year.
The cost of bottled soybean oil has increased by 1% in the last month, from Tk 175 to Tk 176 per litre, according to statistics from the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.
Soybean Oil Cost Increase
The cost of a liter of loose soybean oil increased by over 4% in the last week, hitting Tk 180 to Tk 182 on Sunday.
Additionally, two-liter bottles of soybean oil, palm oil, and rice bran oil now cost more at retail.
A one-liter container of rice bran oil, for example, now costs Tk 210 instead of Tk 205, a 6.41 percent increase.
