In Birampur, Dinajpur, the price of every type of rice has risen within a week, by Tk 4 to 5 a kg. Rice traders allege the increase is caused by a syndicate of mill owners.

In the market, coarse Guti Swarna, which was Tk 44 a kg a week ago, is now Tk 48. Atash (local) has risen from Tk 44 to Tk 48, Atash (auto-mill) from Tk 47 to Tk 52, Miniket from Tk 56 to Tk 60 and Katari from Tk 58 to Tk 62.

Autorickshaw driver Joynal Abedin, who is over 60, said: "A few days ago I bought coarse rice at Tk 44 a kg. Today I hear it has gone up to Tk 48. There are three mouths to feed in my family and we need two kg of rice a day. It is very hard to run the household after buying vegetables."

Samsul Islam, a rice trader at Katla Bazar in the upazila, said he was selling coarse rice at Tk 43-44 a few days ago and now, suddenly, sells it at Tk 47-48, up Tk 4 a kg. He said every mill has plenty of paddy in stock but is deliberately producing less rice. "Even though there is rice supply in the wholesale depots, mill owners are raising prices for no reason. We small traders have become their hostages."

Rice trader Shamsuddin said the supply of rice in the market has fallen somewhat compared with a few days ago, pushing prices up. Supply has also fallen because people are keeping paddy in godowns in the hope of higher prices.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.