Mohammad Suman

Indonesia, the world’s biggest supplier of edible oils, has decided to lift the ban on palm oil exports, a development that is expected to bring much-needed relief to the consumers in Bangladesh struggling to afford the cooking oil because of skyrocketing prices.

Costs and deadlines of four ongoing projects to mitigate the waterlogging issue in Chattogram -- worth Tk 11,000 crore -- have been extended multiple times. However, the sufferings of the port city dwellers have increased with them.

After the new prices came into effect, edible oil companies started supplying bottled, loose soybean and palm oil through distributors from Saturday.

Edible oil prices see the biggest increase in Bangladesh’s history as the government moves to put an end to the unprecedented crunch of the essential cooking item.

Every year before Eid, fresh currency notes become a hot commodity. Though the sale of currency notes is illegal, buyers and sellers have been busy bargaining over fresh notes in New Market and Kotwali areas of the port city.

The retail prices of non-bottled and bottled soybean and palm oil have gone up by Tk 10-15 per litre overnight due to a supply crunch in the aftermath of Indonesia’s export ban on crude and refined palm oil imposed on Wednesday.

Indonesia’s abrupt announcement of a palm oil export ban from tomorrow has sent refiners in Bangladesh into zealous rationing, choking the availability of cooking oil at the retail level at a time when its consumption is high.

The edible oil market has become more volatile after wholesalers and millers cut supplies in anticipation of increased prices of the essential cooking ingredient in the wake of the export ban by Indonesia, the world’s biggest supplier of vegetable oil.

Shahidul Islam landed a job in Standard Asiatic Oil Company Limited (SAOCL), a partner company of state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), as a senior officer (maintenance) in 2015.

The ringing sound of hundreds of sewing machines floats through Khalifa Patti in Chattogram every year before Eid-ul-Fitr. At least eight to ten people are hard at work round the clock in every shop of the market.

Despite record imports of soybean oil in the first quarter, consumers are having to pay an additional Tk 36-38 for every litre of non-bottled soybean oil over the price set by the government.

Between August 2018 and September 2020, Dhaka-based Mamun Enterprise has drawn over Tk 6.2 crore in incentives against agro exports.

Every day at the port city’s CRB intersection, around 300 people gather to break their fast. Most of these people belong to the lower-income

Three Dhaka-based buying houses were found to have tried to launder Tk 6.9 crore through mis-declaration, according to the Chattogram Custom House.

The prices of loose soybean and palm oil have gone up by Tk 150-200 per maund at Chattogram’s Khatunganj wholesale market overnight for a supply crisis although the importers maintain there is no shortage at their end.

Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) has identified an importer and forwarding (C&F) agent involved in importing a BMW car though Chattogram Port by submitting fake documents in 2010.

A probe report on the breach of NBR server that saw the release of 11 import consignments last year has raised more questions than it answered.

The prices of edible oil have gone up at the wholesale level yesterday despite the 30 percent tax exemption at the import and production stages.

The supply order, crucial for dealership of edible oils, has turned out to be a key tool being used to inflate the prices at the country’s biggest trade hub in Chattogram.

A section of traders is cashing in on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war to hike  prices of essentials that were already becoming costlier, market  insiders said.