Onion now costs Tk15 yet has no buyers

Only a few days ago, people would rush to buy imported onions from Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) sales centres in Dhaka, but now dealers are struggling to sell onions even though the corporation recently lowered the price from Tk20 to Tk15 per kilogramme.

Dealers said TCB is selling various products along with onions – insisting consumers buy onions with the other products.

TCB spokesperson Humayun Kabir said, "TCB reduced the prices of imported onions as local onions are cheaper. The price has been reduced twice."

Nabi Hossain, a TCB dealer in Badda area, said, "Even after reducing the price, imported onions are not being sold because local onions are available at a lower price on the market."

Mohammad Rafiq, a dealer in Rampura area, said if they had local onions instead of imported ones, the sales would have increased a bit.

Onions imported from Pakistan, Egypt and China are available at retail markets in Dhaka at Tk20-35 but buyers are not interested in buying them because local onions are being sold at Tk35-40.

The TCB started selling onions at Tk25 to stabilise the market after India stopped importing onions on 14 September last year.

The price of one kilogramme of medium grain pulses on TCB trucks is Tk50 and a five-litre bottle of oil is Tk400.