Bangladesh News

Non-brand soya bean oil disappeared from city wholesale markets yesterday with a sudden surge in edible oil prices.

Soya bean oil wholesalers in city markets including Moulvibazar and Karwan Bazar said a sudden shortage of non-brand soybean oil was being experienced during the last three days, but the crisis deepened yesterday afternoon.

“Today it seems that soya bean oil has vanished from the city markets,” said an oil trader at Karwan Bazar. Yesterday. Not a single litre of non-brand soya bean oil was available at any oil outlets, he added saying that branded bottled oil was however available at higher prices.

An edible oil wholesaler at the same market said, “I made advance payments on Thursday and today I went there to receive the oil, but they said no oil was available. I even offered to pay more, but I didn’t get any.”

Another wholesaler at Moulvibazar, the largest wholesale market in the city, said many of them could not purchase any oil yesterday.

“A few traders sold their oil in stock for Tk 120 per kg on the wholesale market,” he said.

A source at the market said two of the largest branded soya bean oil producers have not been supplying oil to the markets for the last couple of days.

Meanwhile, a five-litre bottle of soya bean oil, retail priced Tk 514 with production date of March 4, 2008, was selling for Tk 535 yesterday.

Non-brand soya bean oil was also scarce at BDR fair price outlets where per litre (1 litre = 900mg) of it was selling at Tk 92. A kg of the same oil would cost the buyers Tk 102.

Due to the crisis of edible oil, many traders have been selling palm oil at Tk 110 a kg although the government had fixed the rate of palm oil at Tk 98.5 per kg until March 9.

A number of traders at Moulvibazar alleged that a cartel consisting powerful wholesalers and oil producers is making a quick buck by suspending the supply of soya bean oil to the market.

“They [the cartel] have been making crores of taka this way,” said an oil trader.

Although the government, following a meeting with the business community, had fixed the retail price of soya bean oil at Tk 103.5 per kg, a number of larger wholesalers were selling it for Tk 105.5 or Tk 106 per kg, he said.

After the government served them with notices for the breach of their commitment, “the wholesalers made the soya bean oil disappear from the market — only to create an artificial crisis,” he added.

As the non-brand soya bean oil was out of market, many people were compelled to buy branded soya bean oil, worsening the edible oil crisis further.

According to reports received from different districts, a kg of soya bean oil was selling at Tk 125 yesterday in Gopalganj and Khulna.

This correspondent over the last two days failed to reach MA Rouf Chowhdury, president of Bangladesh Edible Oil Refiners’ Association, over his cellphone for his comments regarding the crisis.