25 more BDR fair price shops in city soon

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Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) is going to open 25 more fair price outlets in Dhaka to sell rice as the number of buyers is increasing every day in the wake of shortage and price hike of coarse rice.

The number of such outlets would be 75 after the increase.

The queues became so long at different BDR shops yesterday that the BDR men had to arrange two more queues for easy management. But buyers still had to wait for four to five hours to get 5kg rice.

Supply of coarse rice was found scarce at different wholesale markets in the capital including Karwan Bazar, Babubazar and Badamtoli markets, which led to further rise in its price.

“The rate of coarse rice was Tk 1,250 a maund on Friday, but today I sold my last eight sacks at Tk 1,270-1,280. There is no rice left at my shop now,” a trader at Babubazar said yesterday.

The wholesaler said the suppliers from the northern districts have suddenly increased the price of coarse rice. “So, I decided not to buy anymore coarse rice now,” he said, adding, “There is no scarcity of fine rice.”

In some wholesale markets, the price of coarse rice of different qualities was between Tk 1,270 and Tk 1,340 a maund yesterday. The rates were between Tk 1,250 and Tk 1,310 just a day ago.

In retail markets, the rates of coarse rice were between Tk 35 to Tk 40 a kg yesterday.

A retailer said many customers who used to buy fine rice are now buying coarse rice as the price of fine rice increased. This is one main reason behind the increased price of coarse rice.

The main consumers of coarse rice do not come to retail markets anymore–most of them go to the BDR-run fair price shops and open market sale (OMS) outlets, he added.

In the last two weeks, the price of coarse rice has increased by Tk 5-6 a kg, retailers from different markets said.

Meanwhile, many buyers from the middle income groups are also coming to the BDR shops now to buy rice.

“As the queues are getting longer every day, we have decided to increase two more queues so that we can reach more people within a short time,” said Col Mujibul Haque, commander BDR in Dhaka.

“We used to sell around 400 tonnes of rice a week at our 50 outlets in the city. But I guess today we will sell more than 500 tonnes,” he said, adding that they are going to open 25 new fair price outlets.

The government has also opened around 700 small centres to sell rice under the OMS programme.

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