Govt to import onion from Egypt, Turkey: Agriculture minister

The government will import onion from Egypt and Turkey to meet the local demand for the essential cooking ingredient, Agricultural Minister Abdur Razzak said on Monday

While talking to reporters at his secretariat office in Dhaka, Razzak also said that the government will allow anyone who wants to import onion to meet the country’s local demand.

The minister came up with the announcement when neighboring India imposed a 40 percent duty on onion export which came into effect on Sunday.

In the wake of India’s imposition of a 40 percent export duty, the prices of onion have increased by Tk 10-15 per kg in the local market just within a day.

On Sunday, Indian onions were being sold at Tk 65-70 per kg, while local onions at Tk 90 per kg.

But on Saturday, per kg of Indian and local variety onions were sold at Tk 55-60 and Tk 75 per kg respectively.

Expressing concern over the soaring onion prices, he called upon the respective departments to ensure spontaneous market and import monitoring to keep the onion price within tolerable levels across the country.