Staff Reporter:
Prices of the most varieties of rice witnessed a sharp fall in the city markets for the last two weeks and this trend is expected to continue till next two months.
Experts said the declining trend of rice prices due to the good harvest of Boro, one of the main paddy crops in Bangladesh.
It was found in main city markets that the prices of all medium and coarse varieties of rice have declined up to Taka 3 per kilogram, compared to the prices a week ago.
Medium fine quality Miniket rice is being sold at Taka 66 per kg, which was sold at Taka 68 last week at the retail level.
At the wholesale market, the price of a 50-kg sack of Miniket rice is now being sold at Taka 3,215, down by Taka 287 from the previous price of Taka 3,500, a wholesaler of Mohammadpur Government Krishi Market said.
“The rice price is declining with a range of Taka 100-150 per 50-kg sack, on an average. The downward trend is likely to continue for one and a half months”, he said.
Even the coarse variety ‘BR-28’ is being sold at Taka 52 per kg, down
by Taka 3, from the previous price of Taka 55. The price of per 50-kg sack has come down to Taka 2500 from the last week’s Taka 2730-2750].
About the current rice price, noted farm economist Dr Jahangir Alam said, “There is no chance to in-crease rice price in the next two months as the overall yield of Aman and Boro has crossed the optimum level.”
Rice price is likely to maintain falling trend in coming days as the good harvest of Boro is contributing 54 percent of the total rice output, he said.
Bumper Boro production also achieved this year, so it is predicted that rice price may declined further.
About Boro production, Badal Chandra Biswas, Director General (DG) of the
Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said, “We’re expecting optimum Boro production this year against the production target of 2.22 crore tonnes set for FY2 and the overall yield is standard”.
Data released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) on the production of dry season crop Boro showed that the country bagged 2.07 crore tonnes of the staple grain during the Boro season in FY23, up 3 percent from the previous fiscal year.
Total rice production grew 2.5 percent year-on-year to 3.91 crore tonnes, the highest on record, in FY23.
