Tk15 for a banana in Bangladesh

Not many footpath vendors grin when they tell you how pricier their fruits are. But Abul Bashar, a street trader in Dhaka's New Eskaton area, was smiling when he said that per piece of his bananas now cost Tk15, and he did not have any banana below Tk10. "Prices of everything are now surging. Bananas now cost us more when we buy those from the wholesalers. Therefore, I cannot sell it below this," he had his explanation ready, as he was told bananas were at Tk10 per piece even 10- 15 days ago. He was smiling probably because he knew his prices were not exceptional, rather all over the capital were paying more for bananas. Agricultural Extension estimates show cultivation of the fruit dropped by 1.69 lakh tonnes in the FY2020-21 compared to the previous year. Is the reduced yield responsible for the price hikes? To find the answer, these correspondents visited wholesale fruit markets in Dhaka's Karwan Bazar, Wais Ghat and Badamtoli. Tofail Ahmed, a banana wholesaler at Karwan Bazar, ...