92,000 Litres of Hoarded Soybean Oil Seized in Rajshahi

Police have seized 92,616 litres of soybean oil during a raid on a market in Rajshahi’s Puthia Upazila as a shortage of cooking oil continued to plague consumers amid a price hike, reports media.

The law enforcers searched five warehouses at Baneshwar Bazar and found the oil stored in 454 drums on Tuesday, said Iftekhair Alam, an additional superintendent of police.

The hoarders intended to take advantage of the ongoing crisis by selling the oil at an increased price, according to Ifteekhair.

Authorities in Dhaka and Chattogram seized nearly 50,000 litres of soybean and palm oil stashed in stores and the home of a trader earlier in the week.

The traders bought the products that had been imported at lower prices before the hike, but they were selling it at the new rate.

Soybean oil vanished from shelves ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr in the beginning of May. Later, mill owners decided to raise the price of soybean oil by Tk 40 per litre to around Tk 200 with the consent of the commerce ministry. But the move did little to improve the situation.

According to estimates by the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection, traders have stockpiled 40,000 tonnes of soybean oil in the space of 10 days to make extra profits.

In the face of the ongoing turmoil in the cooking oil market, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi slammed retailers and wholesalers for taking advantage of the government's "trust" by hoarding products in the hope of profiting from the crisis.

"Our shortcoming was in trusting the traders. It was a mistake," he told reporters on Monday. “Even though the mill owners have kept their word, retailers and wholesalers have taken advantage of the situation.”