Published :
Updated :
For all latest news, follow The Financial Express Google News channel.
Chicken, egg, fish and vegetables were traded at much higher prices on Saturday in the capital as the kitchen markets were yet to get normal crowd after the Eid-ul-Fitr vacation.
Transaction remained lesser in last three days compared to usual days amid low presence of customers and sellers, traders said.
Most of offices will open from Sunday in the capital after the Eid that was celebrated in Bangladesh on June 5.
Broiler chicken was sold at Tk 155-160 per kilogram (kg) on Saturday which was Tk 150-155 just a day before the Eid.
Sonali and Deshi (indigenous) varieties of chicken were almost absent in the kitchen markets on the day.
Visiting a few kitchen markets in the city, this correspondent found beef and mutton trader were yet to open their shops.
Md Rabiul Islam Manik, a chicken vendor at Jafrabad in Mohammadpur area, told the FE that the chicken farms have stopped supplying birds from Tuesday last amid a ban on truck and pickup vans on highways in before the Eid.
He said a few farms have supplied chicken to some markets on Saturday at comparatively high rate.
He said sale will start increasing from Sunday, the first working day after the Eid and two-day weekly holidays.
However, 20-30 per cent groceries opened on Saturday in the capital where egg was traded at Tk 36-38 a haali (four pieces) -Tk 2.0-3.0 hike in a week.
Few fish vendors were seen selling stored hilsa, ruhi, katla, shorputi, shrimp and other fishes at exorbitant prices.
Small to medium sized shrimp, pabda, tengra were sold at Tk 450-650 a kg, a Tk 80-100 hike per kg in a week.
Vegetables including seasonal snake gourd, pointed gourd, sponge gourd, brinjal and eddo were sold at Tk 50-80 a kg---a Tk 10 hike at per kg compared to a few days before Eid.
Leafy vegetables were almost out of market as few vendors were seen selling such item at Tk 15-30 a bunch.
Md Abdul Latif, a vegetable wholesaler at Karwan Bazar in the city, said rates of buying and selling plunged in the last few days. Business dropped to less than 5.0 per cent in the last couple of days compared to that in usual time, he said.
Apart from customers, many of the traders haven't returned to the capital after the (Eid) vacation, he noted.
However, Mr Latif was expecting that both the wholesale and the retail markets would be normal in the next three or four days.
Prices of garlic and ginger, two main cooking ingredients, remained static maintaining their previous highs.
Ginger was sold at Tk 150-200 and garlic at Tk 100-160 per kg based on their quality.