Bangladesh News

The prices of rice, following a long spell of spiral, have started to fall at wholesale markets in the capital in the last two days, without having any immediate impact on retail markets.

Meanwhile, streams of people in desperate need of rice continued to throng Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) fair price outlets and direct sales points of Directorate of Food.

The Daily Star correspondent visiting different wholesale rice markets including Babubazar, Badamtoli, Mohammadpur Krishi Market and Karwan Bazar found that the price of coarse rice came down by Tk 10 to Tk 30 per maund (37.32 kilogram).

The price of different varieties of course rice at some of the wholesale markets was Tk 1,250 to Tk 1,310 a maund yesterday. The same varieties were sold between Tk 1,270 and Tk 1,340 a maund three days ago.

The price of fine rice also decreased by Tk 10 to Tk 30 per maund yesterday.

An employee of Janata Rice Agency at Babubazar in old part of the city told The Daily Star that the price of fine rice reduced yesterday as the prices of different varieties of coarse rice have been on the decline for the last couple of days.

He also said Tk 1,620 is the present price of a maund of minikate (better grade) rice that was selling at Tk 1,650 on Monday.

Mohammad Masud, manager of Ekota Rice Agency at Mohammadpur Krishi Market, said the prices of rice fell due to the declining number of customers.

There is no possibility of further price increase in the coming days with new rice hitting the markets soon, hopefully raising its stock to a satisfactory level, he added.

A number of rice wholesalers also agreed that plummeting sales in the last three days contributed to the declining prices. The price has also been falling at rural markets, he added.

The retail price of coarse rice remained stable — between Tk 35 to Tk 40, while the price of fine rice remained at Tk 40 to Tk 47.

Retailers said the price might fall within two to three days if the falling trend in wholesale prices continued.

The open market sale (OMS) outlets were closed yesterday, but a large number of people thronged the outlets of the BDR and the Directorate of Food.

The BDR outlets experienced huge rush of people as the OMS outlets were closed yesterday. Many people alleged that they did not get any rice from the BDR outlets despite waiting for hours.

At least three women were injured in a scuffle at lines for rice in front of a BDR outlet on English Road.

As the clock struck 4:30pm, only 30 minutes before the closing time of the outlet, over 300 women waiting in two lines started a brawl to reach the sales point.

One of the injured, Mariam Begum, 50, told The Daily Star that she had arrived at the outlet at 10:00am from Matuail, but she was pushed out of the line several times due to recurring scuffles.

The BDR stopped selling rice to the women following the occurrences, but they sold rice to males till 5:30pm.

Col Mujibul Haque, a commander of BDR in Dhaka, said the sale of rice went up since this Saturday after they increased the lines. They are now selling around 575 to 600 tonnes of rice everyday as opposed to 350 to 400 tonnes earlier, he added.

Meanwhile, the rush at the direct sales outlets of the Directorate of Food continued.

Pias Costa, director general of the Directorate of Food, said they have been selling 5 kg of rice to each person and a total of 612 people are able to get rice from each of their outlets everyday.