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In 2014, the average price of beef in Dhaka was Tk 275 per kg. It increased gradually and rose past Tk 800 per kg in many locations last year.
As consumers turned away from beef over the high cost, sellers began to reduce the price in the middle of the year and the rate fell to around Tk 600 in some areas before starting to rise again.
Last week, Rahij Mia was selling beef at Tk 750 a kg at Sattar Gosto Bitan, a store at Town Hall Market in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur.
“Prices are rising," he said before warning: "They will go up further.”
“It seems the prices will hit Tk 800 again,” quipped customer Aminul Islam.
Their forecasts are a reality now as butchers started charging customers Tk 800 before Shab-e-Barat, nearly Tk 150 more than the ‘reasonable price’ set by the government, exploiting the high demand on the occasion, reports bdnews24.com.
The possibilities of the price coming down appear slim since Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr are approaching, traders said.
Traders say they have raised the prices because cattle prices have increased, while the farmers who raise cattle have blamed a rise in feed prices for the cattle price rise.
Khalilur Rahman of Khalil Gosto Bitan in North Shahjahanpur was among the traders who set an example by selling beef at less than Tk 600 a kg.
But he was able to maintain the rate only until Jan 10. He raised the price to Tk 650 afterwards and then to Tk 695 last Tuesday.
Asked why, Khalilur said: “We don’t raise cattle. I had been able to charge less when cattle prices were low. Cattle prices have gone up, and I can’t sell at a loss.”
He, however, does not agree with the farmers that a rise in feed price was the only reason behind cattle price hike. “Farmers and large farms know people will need beef on Shab-e-Barat. So, they have raised the prices,” he said.
Customer Mirza Mamun blamed both the traders and the farmers for the beef price hike.
“If they were able to sell at Tk 600-650 before the election [on Jan 7], why can’t they do it now?” he asked.
Another customer at Basila Bazar, Mahbub Alam, agreed with Mirza. “Prices can go up by Tk 10 or 20 a kg, but a big jump by Tk 50 or 100 clearly indicates gouging,” he said.
“And the prices skyrocket whenever the traders can show an occasion, such as Ramadan, as an excuse. But they don’t lower the prices when the occasion is over.”
AHM Shafiquzzaman, director general of the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection, also wondered if production cost increased at this rate in just a matter of a month.
“The livestock ministry should investigate this. Such a rise in production cost in such a short period of time can’t lead the traders to raise beef prices,” he said.
‘REASONABLE PRICE’
Tarequr Rahman, who owns Meghdubi Agro cattle farm at Basila, said they raised cattle prices because of a hike in feed prices.
“The feed priced at Tk 35-46 after the last Eid-ul-Azha now costs Tk 50-52. Prices of everything from pulses to husk to corn have increased. It’s true cattle prices have also increased following the rise in feed prices. I don’t see a scope for the prices to go down in near future,” he said.
But the accounts he gave matched the government’s data on production cost, which means the rise is occurring somewhere in the supply chain ‘unreasonably’.
It costs Meghdubi Tk 130,000 to raise a cow producing 300 kg of beef, and the farm sells such a cow with a profit margin of Tk 10,000-15,000.
Even if the cost of transportation, marketing and processing for the cow is Tk 10,000, the total cost for a beef seller will be Tk 155,000, or Tk 516 per kg.
With a profit margin of 17 percent as per the government’s ‘reasonable price’ rules for retailers, beef prices should not go beyond Tk 600 a kg.
The government passed the Agricultural Marketing Act in 2018 and made guidelines in this regard three years later. The guidelines have set the profit margin for farmers, wholesalers, and retailers. The prices set in line with the guidelines are called ‘reasonable prices’.
According to the calculations of the Department of Agricultural Marketing, which is tasked with setting and implementing ‘reasonable prices’, the reasonable price of beef should not exceed Tk 656 a kg, including 17 percent profit after a cost of Tk 587.
These reasonable prices are supposed to be put on display in every market, but no one follows the rules.
“We are supposed to set and implement the prices, but we haven’t been given the ability for the implementation,” said Pranab Kumar Saha, an assistant director at the department.
“We have to take the deputy commissioner’s help. We can move only when a magistrate comes.”
Md Shahidul Islam, deputy project director at the department, said different agencies should work together to control the market and implement the reasonable prices.
The DNCRP is one of the agencies that receive lists of reasonable prices set by the Department of Agricultural Marketing.
bdnews24.com asked Shafiquzzaman, the head of the DNCRP, why they are not taking steps after a rise in beef prices, although they moved to fix the prices after the rates had fallen last year.
“Does the consumers’ directorate have all the duties? We can’t do all these,” he said.
He also said cattle traders have to pay lessees of markets and extortionists, which are hidden costs.
“Can we stop these? Money has to be paid on trucks and markets. The prices go up in this way.”