18/08/2022 (New Age) - Consumers found it hard to buy soya bean oil in the capital Dhaka in the past couple of days as the country’s edible oil businesses have reduced the supply of the edible oil sharply as they are waiting for a price hike of the essential commodity, market sources said.

The price of unpackaged soya bean oil increased by more than Tk 10 a litre in the past three days on the markets in the city due to the supply shortage.

Retailers and wholesalers said that edible oil refiners decreased the supply of packaged soya bean oil in large quantities for the past four-five days as they could not charge additional money for the item due to price tag.

Representatives of the edible oil companies are not entertaining orders from retailers saying that the companies have quizzed the supply of soya bean oil in expectation of an increase in the price of the item, they said.

Consumers in the city alleged that they were not getting soya bean oil at the shops in their localities for the past couple of days.

Retailers at Karwan Bazar in the city said that the supply of soya bean oil almost halved in the past four-five days on the market.

Although edible oil prices witnessed a significant fall on the international market, the Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners and Vanaspati Manufacturers Association on August 3 proposed that the government should increase the retail price of packaged soya bean oil by Tk 20 to Tk 205 a litre due to the appreciation of the dollar against the taka.

The association also proposed raising the retail price of unpackaged soya bean oil by Tk 14 to Tk 180 a litre and five-litre bottle by Tk 50 to Tk 960.

Since the submission of the proposals by the edible oil refiners, the price of soya bean oil has started increasing on the local market.

Md Shaiful Ather Taslim, a director of TK Group, denied the allegation of squeezing supply of packaged soya bean oil.

He said that the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission was working on the edible oil refineries’ proposals and hopefully the price would be reviewed within two or three days.

Mizanur Rahman, a retailer at the Karwan Bazar kitchen market, told New Age in Thursday that companies had decreased the supply of packaged soya bean oil by 50 per cent in the past five days.

Representatives of the companies informed that edible oil mill owners were waiting for a price hike of soya bean oil as they proposed raising the price of the commodity by Tk 20 a litre.

Commerce minister Tipu Munshi on Wednesday said that the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission was working on the edible oil refiners’ proposals.

He said that the government would review the prices of edible oils after reviewing all the issues, including international prices and dollar rate.

Though the government is yet to readjust the prices, traders increased the prices of palm oil and unpackaged soya bean oil by more than Tk 10 a litre in the past three days.

Unpackaged soya bean oil sold for Tk 178-190 a litre in the city on Thursday.

A one-litre bottle of soya bean oil was selling for Tk 185–190 while a five-litre container of the item was retailing at Tk 910.

Palm oil sold for Tk 150–160 a litre in the city.

Motuar Rahman, a rickshaw puller in the city, said that he did not find a one-litre bottle of soya bean oil at shops in Shekhertek area in the city.

He said that he had to buy one litre of unpackaged soya bean oil for Tk 190 a litre on Thursday.

Monjur Mohammad Shahriar, director of the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection, said that they were not ware about the supply shortage of edible oils on the market.

‘We will look into the matter as there is no shortage of edible oils in the country,’ he said.

https://www.newagebd.net/article/178772/consumers-suffer-as-refiners-cut-supply