Consumers suffer badly for continuous price hike of essentials

Staff Correspondent: Chicken, fish and lentil prices increased further in less than a week while most of the consumers are yet to get edible oil at reduced rate.
The price of broiler chickens which fell in the second week of July during Eid-ul-Azha festival showed an uptrend in this week. In the city markets, a broiler chicken weighing one kg is being sold at Tk 165, while it was sold at Tk 150-a-kg last week.
Pakistani and Sonali varieties of chickens witnessed a slight hike in the week and were sold at Tk 260-290 a kg at the retails.
Native chicken prices remained at their previous high rate at Tk 550-Tk 600 a kg.
Farm eggs prices also remained at their previous high of Tk 11 per piece as a dozen of the eggs were retailed at Tk 130-132 (brown) and Tk 124-126 (white) on the day, city groceries and vendors said.
“Demand for poultry product is much higher amid the persisting soaring trend in fish and red meat prices,” said Habib Uddin, a chicken vendor of Mohammadpur market in the city.
Faruqe Hasan Tipu, the owner of a broiler chicken farm in Kolatia area of Keraniganj, said rearing cost of a bird weighing one kg was at least Tk 140 till last week when they were selling it at Tk 142-143 a kg.
He also noted that the cost of one kg poultry feed was at least Tk 55 at the weekend.
Meanwhile, fish, one of the main sources of protein, has become dearer in the city. Prices of all kinds of fishes including Hilsa increased further during the ongoing peak monsoon season when supply is supposed to be aplenty.
Cultured fish witnessed Tk 20-30 a kg rise while river fishes witnessed Tk 100-150 a kg hike in the past seven days.
Even, small-sized river shrimps were sold at Tk 1,300 a kg and Pabda fishes (caught from natural sources) sold at Tk 950-1,000 per kilo.
Indigenous rui was selling at Tk 450-700 a kg, katla Tk 400-650, air Tk 850-1,000 and boal Tk 500-650 depending on their sizes.
Hilsa was sold at Tk 700-1,650 a kg based on its size and quality.
The Bangladesh Fish Development Corporation (BFDC) was selling Hilsa at maximum Tk 1,650 a kg last week from its covered vans in the city.
Fish traders said catch in the rivers, beels, haor, baors and other natural water bodies have reduced notably in the current year compared to that in the last year.
Prices of lentil have also increased by Tk 10 a kg in the week as finer one was selling at Tk 140-145 a kg and medium one at Tk 125-130. However, coarse lentil prices remained static at Tk 110-115 a kg.

Loose soybean oil, bottled soybean and loose super palm oil were still selling at a rate much higher than the prices fixed by the government two weeks back.
Most of the grocers in the city’s lanes and by-lanes were yet to get new bottles of soybean oil of different brands and were selling older bottles at Tk 195-200 a litre when the government had fixed new price of the cooking oil at Tk 185 a litre on July 17.
Few shops, especially those at the large kitchen markets, have already got new bottles but others are yet to get one, said Jewel Rana, a West Dhanmondi-based grocer.
Loose soybean oil was also retailed at Tk 170-172 per litre against the government set rate of Tk 166.
On the other hand, loose super palm oil was sold at Tk 158-160 a litre on the day in most of the kitchen markets against the government-fixed rate of Tk 152.
Green chilli, a kitchen staple, maintained its previous high as was selling at Tk 180-220 per kg yesterday.