The prices of essentials such as rice, lentils, oil, sugar, flour, onions and potatoes are rising fast. Poor people who ate eggs and broiler chicken instead of fish, beef or mutton now find even these out of reach. A hali (four) of farm eggs costs Tk 40. A kilogram of broiler chicken costs almost Tk 200, up from Tk 140 a month ago and Tk 100–110 six months ago.

Day labourers who could not afford fish, meat or eggs regularly used to live on rice with lentils and mashed potato. Now even mashed potato costs more: not only potatoes but the oil, onions and chillies needed to make it have become sky-high. Lower middle-class families are at a loss over daily shopping costs, cannot balance income and spending, and are borrowing constantly to get by.

According to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), onions and edible oil have risen the most in the past month. Onion prices are up 39 per cent in a month; local onions sold yesterday at Tk 65 a kg and imported Indian onions at Tk 50. Edible oil is up 9 per cent over the same period, and over a year the two items have risen by up to 53 per cent. A litre of soybean oil now costs Tk 150–155, against Tk 130–135 a month ago and Tk 90–92 a year ago, so edible oil has doubled in price in a year.

Rice, another essential, rose 11 per cent in a month, and even coarse rice now costs Tk 50 a kg. Both loose and packaged atta and maida flour are up by 2 to 16 per cent; packaged atta rose by about Tk 7 a kg in a month and loose maida by up to Tk 16.

By TCB's count, a dozen eggs, known as the poor man's protein, has sold for Tk 120 for about three months, up from Tk 90–95. The broiler chicken market is on fire, with prices rising daily: yesterday a kilogram sold for up to Tk 195, against Tk 140 a month ago and Tk 100 to 110 six months ago. According to TCB's website, potatoes sold yesterday at Tk 25–27 a kg, up from Tk 18–20 a week earlier.

Even a cup of tea to beat fatigue costs more, because sugar is dear. Although the government has fixed the price of brown sugar at Tk 75 a kg, none is available below Tk 80, and in some cases it sells for Tk 85; two months ago it cost Tk 65–70. Imported coarse lentils are close to Tk 100 a kg, up from Tk 70 three months ago and Tk 65 a year ago, when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman, chairman of BRAC and executive chairman of the Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC), said: "Countless people lost their jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic, and most people's incomes have fallen. In the early days of the pandemic people borrowed or broke into their savings to get by. That is no longer possible. So people are being forced to eat less. Many who cannot cope are changing their diet, relying on rice, potatoes or lentils instead of fish and meat. But ordinary people are struggling to keep even those quantities up. Until the situation returns to normal, it will be hard for the lower and middle classes to get over this crisis." He believes the government has scope to do much more.

A review of market prices shows goods have been getting dearer for several months. Retailers blame wholesalers, and wholesalers blame dealers. Prices are also rising at fish and fresh produce wholesale markets. No vegetable sells for less than Tk 50 at retail; a small bottle gourd costs Tk 50–60 and a large one Tk 80. Potatoes cost Tk 27 a kg, green chillies have passed Tk 200 a kg and cucumbers cost Tk 80 a kg.

Countless people lost work during the lockdowns imposed to curb the pandemic, and most workers' incomes have fallen. Nearly everyone in the lower and middle classes is struggling to make ends meet, and many who cannot run their households have left, or are leaving, Dhaka. People concerned say that if the market cannot be controlled, the food supply chain will fall into disorder, and experts fear this could even lead to social unrest.

Source: Amader Shomoy. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.