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The government will sit with the stakeholders at the end of this month to devise strategies for keeping supplies and prices of essential items stable in the country during upcoming Ramadan.
To this end, the commerce ministry will sit with over 45 trade associations and stakeholders on March 27 to devise a plan ahead of Ramadan so that prices of key essential items remain stable during the holy month of fasting.
The meeting will review the prices of essential items in the city kitchen markets. Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi will chair the meeting.
Usually, common people suffer a lot due to unusual hike in prices of some key essential items, especially onion during Ramadan and Eid-ul-Azha in the country, sources concerned have said.
The government should take special measures to ensure an adequate supply of onion in the markets so that its price remains stable during the month of Ramadan, they observe.
"We have taken initiatives to keep the prices of essential items stable throughout the year. We will sit at the end of this month to analyse the price-and-supply situation of the commodities," a senior commerce ministry official said.
Presently, both prices and supplies of various essentials in the capital city remained stable, he said, adding that the situation would have to be kept under control during Ramadan in the interests of the common people.
In the meeting, necessary steps would be taken to stabilise the prices of garlic, sugar, edible oil, onion, date and gram during Ramadan.
Representatives of different ministries concerned, departments, agencies and trade bodies will attend the meeting.
However, the government will also take a decision to launch open-market sale (OMS) of key essentials such as sugar, soybean oil, lentils, gram and date aiming to keep their prices within the buying capacity of the common people during Ramadan when prices of these mass-consumed items are usually jacked up.
Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) will go rationing essential items in different parts of the country during the period, using trucks in Dhaka, Chattogram, divisional cities and district towns.
It sells some commodities such as sugar, soybean oil, lentils, gram and date, according to TCB.
The country's annual demand for edible oil is over 1.5 million tonnes, according to MoC.
The annual demand for gram is 60,000 tonnes. More or less 0.3 million tonnes of gram will be required for the month of Ramadan.
As per the official data, the annual demand for onion is about 2.4 million tonnes.
The country's annual demand for sugar is 1.6 million tonnes. The country produced more or less 0.10 million tonnes of sugar while 0.3 million tonnes more will be required during Ramadan.
The country's annual demand for lentils is nearly 0.4 million tonnes. About 70,000 tonnes of additional lentils will be required for the upcoming fasting month.
The demand for garlic is over 0.50 million tonnes per year. The annual demand for ginger is around 0.30 million tonnes.
The country's annual demand for date is nearly 20,000 tonnes while its demand during Ramadan is 18,000 tonnes.