Supply crunch sends sugar Tk110 per kg   

In the latest price surge of daily essentials, sugar reached Tk105-Tk110 per kg in Dhaka as traders cited a supply shortage for at least one week.

Visiting several key kitchen markets on Saturday, non-brand sugar was found demonstrating the price volatility, while branded sugar was found almost vanished from the shelves.       

"Company dealers have not supplied the item for the past three to four days, leading to the crunch," Mohammad Mizan, a grocer in Dhaka's Badda area, told The Business Standard.

He was selling the non-brand kitchen essential at Tk110 per kg.

On 6 October, the commerce ministry fixed the prices of brand sugar at Tk95 and non-brand Tk90 per kg.  

A sugar wholesaler in Mohammadpur Krishi Market said sugar production dropped to half thanks to the ongoing gas supply crisis.    

"Trucks remained queued up at the mill gate for 12 to 14 days. Per day waiting means incurring an additional Tk2,000, which ultimately would be passed on to the consumers," he said in condition of anonymity.         

Referring to the inconsistent gas pressure in the supply lines, Md Taslim Shahriar, assistant general manager of Meghna Group, said they now supply 1,600 to 1,700 tonnes of sugar daily as their regular supply used to hover around 5,000 tonnes per day. 

"At least 1,000 trucks are now waiting for sugar at my factory. But what can we do if the production falls due to the gas crisis," Taslim Shahriar told The Business Standard.    

He said Meghna could produce sugar according to the demand even a month ago. 

Neyaz Morshed, a sugar trader in Chattogram's Khatunganj, said sugar prices have been declining for more than three months in the international market, but the domestic market outlook is completely the opposite.

"In early August, the wholesale prices were Tk2,750-Tk2,800 per maund [1 maund is equivalent to around 37kg]. But now they are Tk3,550. The market trend is very unusual," he said.

According to Chattogram customs, Bangladesh imported 17 lakh tonnes of sugar through Chattogram port in FY22. The import in FY21 was 21 lakh tonnes.   

Once, the state-owned sugar mills used to produce 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh tonnes of sugar. 

In the last two years, six of the 15 government sugar mills suspended production, slashing the annual outputs to 48,000 tonnes and 25,000 tonnes respectively. This has led to the domestic sugar production heavily depending on the private mills.