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Beef prices have drastically fallen in Dhaka to around Tk 600 per kilogramme after meat sellers charged customers Tk 800 or more for a year.
Butchers are competing to cut prices, with some offering beef at as low as Tk 590 or Tk 580 per kg, even on Facebook.
Some others are still trying to squeeze more money out of their customers while the superstores continue to sell at higher prices, according to bdnews24.ccom.
Customers say the sellers developed a high profit-making habit, but were forced to lower prices because of plummeting demands.
Beef has always been in high demand in Bangladesh, but people avoided buying it after the prices crossed the level beyond their reach.
The traders, who had sold four cows a day, struggled to sell one after the price hike.
They are still making a profit overall now, as sales have gone up after the fall in prices.
“We’re definitely making a profit. The profit margin is lower, but the sale is higher, so that’s making up for it,” said Mohammad Imran Hossain, president of the Dairy Farmers Association.
Prices of cattle feed fell by 20 to 30 per cent in some cases, which also helped the beef price to go down, according to him.
Citing the Department of Livestock Services, he said as many as 2.4 million cattle heads remained unsold during Eid-ul-Azha and it impacted the market.
Political violence also led to a fall in demand, with fewer picnics, wedding parties and other functions, he added.
On Friday, more than 100 people lined up in front of Khalil Gosto Bitan in Shahjahanpur Bazar even at 1pm. Those cutting up the meat for customers could barely speak while working.
A customer, Shahriar Ahmed, said: “I’ve travelled here to buy meat on a Tk 50 rickshaw ride from Taltola. We’re getting good meat for good prices here.”
A shop named Halal Meat right beside Khalil’s shop was selling meat at Tk 595 per kg. Shaju Ahmed, the shopkeeper, said: “We don’t know for how many days we’ll be able to sell like this. We’re getting cows at lower prices, so we’re selling at a lower rate as well.”
Prices of other products, such as fish, vegetables and chicken, are also dropping fast as lower costs of beef have grabbed the spotlight.
Goat meat prices fell below Tk 1,000 a kg while broiler chicken now costs Tk 150 to Tk 155 per kg.
Fish prices also dropped while the cost of each dozen eggs slipped below Tk 120, something the government failed to do after setting Tk 144 as maximum price.
Beef prices started soaring after India tightened border control to stop cows from being smuggled into Bangladesh when the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014.
It created a sudden shortage, but became a blessing for local farmers whose business flourished and Bangladesh gradually became able to meet the demands by itself.
But the customers did not get the benefit of rising production as prices tripled over the span of nine years.
According to the Department of Agricultural Marketing, beef cost Tk 275 per kg in 2014, while broiler chicken cost Tk 137 per kg. In 2018, beef prices rose to Tk 430 and chicken prices dropped to Tk 131.
Beef was available at Tk 550 a kg even in 2020.
That year, the Dhaka city corporations did not set a price for beef and the costs rose to between Tk 600 and Tk 650. It was raised further to Tk 700 the following year and reached Tk 800 this year.
BOGURA BUTCHER ‘SHOWS THE WAY’
Earlier this year, a butcher known as Kalu Koshai in Bogura’s Gabtoli, made headlines by selling Tk 580 a kg beef before Ramadan.
His son Abu Hossain Mahmud said they slaughtered five to six cows daily and 10 on Fridays to bring in Tk 1,000 in profit for each. He said they were satisfied with that.
After media outlets picked up his story, it piled pressure on other sellers, forcing them to lower prices as well.
In August, two youths, Rafiul Hasnat and Sazzadur Rahman, began selling beef at Tk 680 at Bayezid Bostami’s Baluchhara Bazar in Chattogram, where beef prices are higher than in Dhaka as is its demand. It was priced at Tk 900 per kg in some places of the port city.
Rafiul and Sazzadur have further lowered the price to Tk 665 per kg. Media reports say they sell 1,600 kg meat on each Fridays and Tuesdays, which raked in a net profit of Tk 40,000 a day.
The two also opened a Facebook page called Meat Bazar, where they post prices, announcements and take advances.
Earlier this month, Jalu Koshai in Narayanganj’s Siddhirganj Chattogram Road Stand area began selling beef at Tk 600 per kg, drawing the attention of the mainstream and social media.
The wave of falling prices gradually spread across chief marketplaces and local shops of Dhaka. Shops in Killarmor in Old Dhaka’s Lalbagh put up a sign reading “Tk 600 per kg” for several days.
HIGH PROFIT TREND
Sellers brought forth reasons like a rise in feed prices, marketplace rent and extortion to justify the high prices, but they purportedly had the intent to keep the profit margin higher than the usual rates.
In August, Commerce Minister Tapan Kanti Ghosh said in a programme that it was possible to sell beef at Tk 350 to Tk 400 per kg if Bangladesh allowed imports.
But the government refrained from letting traders import beef in order to safeguard the local farmers.
Ghulam Rahman, president of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, said the government should control feed and cow medicine prices so that the meat sellers cannot give high production costs as an excuse.
“When the prices were Tk 800, sellers used to make high profit, now it is being sold at Tk 600, but they are still making a lot of profit,” he said.
“In reality, each kg of beef should cost less than Tk 500,” he said.
Robiul Alam, secretary general of Bangladesh Meat Merchants Association, admitted that the sellers charged high prices until now to make extra profit.
“Until now the business was in a downturn due to lower sales. Now people will be able to eat meat and sales will be higher as well,” he said.
He suggested that the government set a price ceiling for beef after doing market analysis, which might settle the issue of meat prices.
But government-set prices do not work most of the time now. Such measures failed to control prices of potatoes, onions and eggs a few months earlier.
People were not able to buy meat at government-set prices during Ramadan until 2020 either.
At different locations of the city, sellers were still charging customers higher than current market prices, with costs ranging from Tk 650 to Tk 750 on Friday.
Shahriar Ahmed, who arrived to buy meat from Shahjahanpur’s Halal Meat, said he saw traders selling beef at Tk 750 per kg at Khilgaon’s Taltola Market.
“They’re in a state of greed after making too much profit. That’s why they’re not lowering the prices. They will be forced to lower prices if things keep going like this [others sell at lower rates],” he said.
The superstores lowered beef prices by a bit, but not like others. The prices at the superstores were Tk 100-Tk 150 higher than local shops.
Shwapno sold beef at Tk 699 in Dhaka on Friday, down from around Tk 750 a few days earlier. It was being sold at Tk 780 in their Chattogram outlets.
Beef price stood at Tk 729 per kg in Meena Bazar, while Daily Shopping set the price at Tk 731 in Dhaka and Tk 779 in Savar and Chattogram.
Unimart charged customers Tk 755 while beef was priced at Tk 749 at Agora.