Bottled soybean oil has nearly disappeared from the Dhaka city鈥檚 shops and markets, including Karwan Bazar, one of the country鈥檚 largest wholesale markets.
Despite commerce adviser Sk Bashir Uddin鈥檚 assurance about two weeks ago that the crisis would be resolved soon, the supply shortage continues to deepen.
According to the consumers, the shortage has been ongoing for over a month, causing them to dash from one market to another in search of the essential commodity, particularly with Ramadan just a week away.
During visits to Kalyanpur area in the city on Saturday morning, bottled soybean oil was found unavailable at most stores.
A store named 鈥楰han Traders and Super Shop鈥�, however, was found to have a tiny stock of half-litre bottles of 鈥楴o 1鈥�, a brand of soybean oil of Meghna Group, which they were selling for Tk 100 despite the retail label read its price at Tk 90.
At another shop named Tonny General Store, no soybean oil was found, when its proprietor Nazrul Islam told 抖阴精品 that the customers were desperately looking for soybean oil ahead of Ramadan, but he couldn鈥檛 provide it.
鈥楥ompany representatives said they didn鈥檛 have supplies. With money in hand I can鈥檛 get the product. The government should urgently intervene,鈥� he demanded.
Kabir Hossain, another store owner in Kalyanpur, said that they had no clue as to why the crisis prolonged, alleging that millers reduced the supply.
Bottled soybean oil has also disappeared from Karwan Bazar, one of the biggest wholesale hubs for daily essentials.
During visits to several wholesale stores at Karwan Bazar on Friday night, no stock of bottled soybean oil was found.
Consumers expressed their anger and frustrations over the situation, particularly when Ramadan is about to start in a week.
Shoriful Islam, a consumer from Kalyanpur, said that they were rushing from one market to another in search of bottled soybean oil.
鈥業n the TV and news portals, we are frequently seeing the government iterate that there will be no shortage of the essentials during Ramadan, but right now, just a week before of the holy month, we don鈥檛 find soybean oil. The government must do something about it,鈥� he said.
In a statement sent to the media on February 16, the 鈥楤angladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners and Vanaspati Manufacturers鈥� Association鈥� said that the soybean oil crisis in the market would end soon.
It also stated that considering the rising demand for edible oil ahead of Ramadan, the association鈥檚 member organisations increased their supply.
Considering the amount of edible oil supplied and imported, there is no chance of a crisis. Even if some traders stocked the commodity, the supply during Ramadan will be adequate and so there was no need for the consumers to panic, the statement assured.
The country鈥檚 top local edible oil producers, City Group, Meghna Group, TK Group, and Bangladesh Edible Oil Limited, have imported edible oil much more than the market demand that would enter the market within the next 7鈥�10 days, the statement further said.
Talking to 抖阴精品,聽Md Shaiful Ather Taslim,聽a director of TK Group, said on Saturday that the situation would start normalising from February 26 or 27, claiming that they were also clueless about what was going on in the edible oil market.
鈥榃e have enough import and made sufficient delivery to the dealers. But what caused the problem along the supply chains we don鈥檛 have any clue. However, we urge the consumers to be patient for a few days. We hope the situation will normalise soon,鈥� he added.
On December 9, in consultation with the government, the refiners hiked the soybean oil price by Tk 8 per litre to Tk 175 for bottled soybean oil and Tk 157 for the unpackaged one.
Commerce adviser Sk Bashir Uddin at a media briefing on February 10 said that the ongoing edible oil crisis in Dhaka would be resolved within a week.
