Finance
Spice Price Spice price goes up ahead of Eid-ul-Azha
Dhaka, June 29: Even with the Eid-ul-Azha being nearly a month away, prices of cooking spices have gone up in Bangladesh, according to reports.
The price of ginger- both local and imported- saw a huge spike, with some costing as much as Tk 200 per kilogram.
Dhaka Tribune reported that the price of imported ginger sold on Sunday was Tk 160-170 per kg. The same commodity sold for Tk 120-150 per kg on Friday.
The local variant was priced at Tk 140-150 per kg on Sunday.
"Visiting several kitchen markets on Monday, including Karwan Bazar, Shantinagar and New Market, spice prices saw an upward surge, but traders shifted the blame on the upcoming demand surge for Eid-ul-Azha," the news outlet reported.
"When pointed out that the second largest religious festival for Muslims was four weeks away, they said that supply of ginger, especially the imported varieties, was short due to Covid-19," it added.
Apart from giner, the price of turmeric was also high, especially the local variant, which saw an increase by Tk 20 per kg.
"On Monday, the market sold Tk 160-220 per kg of domestic turmeric and Tk 140-180 per kg of imported turmeric, while the price of imported dried chilies declined but the price of imported chilies increased," the report said.
However, chillies, another much sought after commodity, had a mixed run. While the domestic dried chilies sold at Tk 170 to 200 per kg, down Tk10 per kg on Sunday, its foreign counterpart saw a hike of Tk 20 per kilogram, selling at Tk 240-280 per kg.
Prices of other commodities that hiked are Cardamom, Coriander and Garlic.
The price of cardamom has increased by Tk 50 per kilogram and sold at Tk 2,200-3,500 per kg, depending on its quality.
Coriander sold at Tk130-150 per kilogram.
Imported garlic sold at Tk 120-140, after a hike of Tk 20 per kg, while the domestic variant sold at Tk 70-80.
Onions- both domestic and imported- sold at Tk 45-50, hiked by Tk 5 per kilogram.
Between May and June, the price of imported onions has increased by 19 percent and domestic onions by 12 percent, according to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB),
During the same period, the price of garlic has increased by 4-6 percent, turmeric by 9 percent and ginger by 21-25 percent, it said.
While the price of clove rose by 15 percent- from Tk 1,000 to Tk 1,100 per kg- prices of coriander increased by 8 percent.
Bay leaves too saw an increase in its price by 30 percent, costing Tk 150-180 per kilograms.
