Govt to import onion from Turkey, Myanmar, China

Bangladesh government has decided to import onion from Turkey, Myanmar and China to improve supply in a bid to bring down prices at kitchen market.

Commerce Secretary Mohammed Zafaruddin made the announcement after a meeting with stakeholders at his office on Tuesday.

In order to check the price hike of onion in domestic market, the Indian government had fixed MEP at $850 per ton, which took effect on Friday, a significant bump from the previous MEP at $250-$300 a ton.

“Prices of per ton onion was $380 to $400 last week, which went up to $850. AS a result, prices of imported onion in the kitchen market rose sharply,” onion importer Mohammad Hafiz told Dhaka Tribune. 

Besides, the production of onion has been less compared to previous year while the production also fell in India, he claimed, adding that bad weather hampered preservation of onion. 

Anil Thakur, an Indian onion exporter, told Dhaka Tribune that the recent flash floods in several Indian states disrupted onion cultivation, which resulted in very low yield.

"This led to onions being sold at Rs50 per kilogram across India, which reflects a huge rise in onion prices," he said, adding, "The government intends to control the local onion prices, and discourage its export to Bangladesh for the time being."