Prices of daily essentials keep climbing

As prices of daily essentials continue to soar in the capital’s kitchen markets, lower- and middle-income people, already bearing the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic, are struggling to get by.

Sellers said prices of most vegetables had climbed again due to the recent rains.

Prices of edible oil, eggs, chickens, potatoes, ginger and garlic have shot up as well, reports Bangla Tribune.

In such circumstances, consumers complain that they have had to take recourse to their savings in trying to put food on the table.

At several kitchen and wholesale markets in Dhaka on Friday, it was found that the price of broiler chickens had gone up by Tk20 compared to last week.

A liter of bottled soybean oil currently costs Tk160; it was being sold at Tk150 just two days ago.

According to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), soybean oil prices have risen by 4% in two days, 7% in one month and 43% in a year.

Palm oil prices have seen the highest surge, according to TCB data. The price of loose palm oil has increased by 66% per kg, while the price of super palm oil has risen by 60%.

Traders said the price of eggs had been on the rise for almost a month, and two pairs of eggs, which were selling for Tk28 a month ago, were now selling for Tk37.

Meanwhile, the prices of ginger and garlic have shot up by Tk20 and Tk10 per kg, in that order, in a week’s time.

The price of potatoes, which was selling at Tk18-20 per kg for some time, has gone up to Tk25 all of a sudden.

On the other hand, the price of onions has remained unchanged — they are being sold at Tk45-50 per kg, as they were last week.