Bangladesh: Cooking oil refiners want prices raised although global prices dropped

Bangladeshi cooking oil refiners have requested the government to increase prices despite a drop in the international market. On July 6, the Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners' and Vanaspati Manufacturers' Association wrote to the Commerce Ministry, saying a stronger US dollar and rising bank interest rates is the reason why what to raise prices. They claimed that they were experiencing losses due to purchasing dollars at Tk114-Tk 115 for oil imports, compared to the previous Tk111 set by the authorities. In addition, they highlighted the increase in bank interest rates by 2.13 percentage points over the past year, following the new monetary policy for the first half of FY24. They argued that raising soybean oil prices was necessary under these circumstances, as conducting business at a loss was not feasible. Typically, soybean oil prices in Bangladesh are determined by the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC) and refiners, based on an analysis of international price ...