Though all over the world the price of consumables has come down to pre Ukraine-Russia war level, or even at the pre-pandemic level, for Bangladesh the scenario is opposite. People who go to markets to buy groceries know that in recent days, every consumable item is selling at a very high price. Yet the government is not admitting its failure and shifting the blame for high food inflation on the war and pandemic. While most people are finding it increasingly hard to maintain life, the government’s nonchalant attitude to public sufferings is bizarre.

Some days ago the price of a kilogram of green chilies touched Tk 1000. Ginger touched Tk 500 per kg. At a neighbourhood market in the capital a couple of days ago, green chilies were selling at Tk 400 per kilo. The price of most vegetables is around Tk 80 per kg or above. Potatoes, a commodity that the farmers throw on the streets in winter in protest for their low price and lack of adequate cold storages, are now selling at Tk 40 per kilo; potatoes’ local varieties are selling at Tk 50 or above. When farmers sell potatoes in winter they do not get the produce’s fair price, but out of season, the middlemen are making huge profits from the commodity through their syndicate. In Bangladesh, the government has never been able to bust the syndicates of fraudulent and dishonest businesspeople.
Fish, beef, chicken, eggs – all sources of animal protein – have gone long ago beyond the buying capacity of the low income group of people. Prices of rice and wheat flour have come down a little, but they should have come down more in the Bangladesh market, at least at the pre Ukraine-Russia war level, though prices of grain have come down to at the pre pandemic level in the rest of the world.
After the signing of the Black Sea Grain Deal on 22 July 2022 by the two warring nations Russia and Ukraine last year with initiative from Turkey, grain prices have normalised in the world but not in Bangladesh. Here the crisis in dollar reserves forced the authorities to significantly limit imports that have kept prices of commodities very high and it is very unlikely they would come down any time soon as there is no prospect of improvement in the dollar reserves.