Bangladesh: Soybean oil disappears from market ahead of Eid

Published 2022년 4월 30일

Tridge summary

A severe shortage of soybean and palm oil is sweeping through Dhaka's retail shops and super markets, causing concern among consumers, retailers, and wholesalers ahead of Eid. Despite the government's reassurances of adequate supply, prices have surged, with some sellers running out of bottled oil and struggling to obtain new supplies from manufacturing companies. This crisis, mirroring one earlier in the year, is exacerbated by rising prices in the international market, necessitating potential price increases by local processors and marketers. Amidst calls for reducing supply to pressure the government into price adjustments, the Department of National Consumer Rights Protection has reassured the public that companies have enough stocks to last for about a month and a half, promising to address the issue promptly to prevent undue hardship for consumers.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

Azizur Rahman, an iftar food seller in the Merul Badda area, has been struggling to find soybean or palm oil for the last few days. Even when he could manage to find edible oil, he had to pay Tk20-25 extra per kilogram. On Friday, he visited at least around 10 shops, but could not find bottled or unbottled soybean oil anywhere. When he found unbottled soybean oil in a shop at last, he had to pay Tk190 per kg, which is way more than the price fixed by the government. Azizur Rahman told The Business Standard, "I would have sold iftar for one or two more days, but because of the oil crisis, I am going to stop it today." Despite the government's assurance that there will be no shortage in the supply of edible oil during Ramadan, a crisis has hit consumers, retailers and wholesalers in Dhaka just before Eid. Soybean and palm oil are available in small quantities in only a few shops in the market, while most stores have no oil at all. The crisis of soybean oil in the retail shops ...

Source: TBS