Bangladesh's flour costs are on the rise.

While worldwide flour prices have been steadily rising, the country's price of flour has been steadily rising as well, increasing the misery of ordinary people, who have already been pounded by the escalating cost of essentials. On average, prices of coarse flour (atta) and fine flour (maida), both in loose and package forms, increased by USD 0.023-0.035/kg in the last one and a half weeks, according to market data from the city markets.

At the retail level, the price of branded packet maida has increased to USD 0.75/kg while the price of loose maida has increased to USD 0.64/kg. The price of loose atta, which had seen a tiny decrease in January, has risen to USD 0.49/kg once more, while the price of package atta has risen to USD 0.58/kg. the finer wheat prices jumped over 7% over the course of a week, and the current price is 41% higher than it was a year ago, according to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).

According to a study from the Ministry of Food, the private sector brought in only 2.84M/mt of wheat during the July-April period of this fiscal year (FY) 2021-22, compared to more than 3.8M/mt during the same period 2021. The overall wheat import in the period July-April of FY 22, including that imported by the public sector, has reached 3.3M/mt so far. Bangladesh's wheat demand has climbed to 8.0-8.5M/mt in recent years, which has been accompanied by a shift in the country's dietary habits. More than 95% of the country's overall demand is met by imports from North America, Australia, the Ukraine, Russia, and India combined.