Soybean oil now Tk 7 dearer

The price of soybean oil once again increased on Tuesday and per litre of bottled soybean oil will now cost Tk 192 in retail markets.

Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners and Vanaspati Manufacturers Association issued a press release on Monday, saying that the new price will come into effect from today (Tuesday).

The new price has been fixed after a meeting held with the Bangladesh Tariff Commission and the Ministry of Commerce, said the press statement.

Earlier, the price of per litre bottled soybean oil was Tk 185.

Bangladesh Tariff Commission and the Ministry of Commerce held a meeting on August 17 where a 20 percent price hike was proposed by the association.

From now on, per litre of opened soybean oil will be sold at Tk 175 while the cost per five litres of bottled soybean oil will stand at Tk 945. And per litre of opened palm oil will be sold at Tk 145.

According to the Bangladesh Bank (BB) data, around 5,15,000 tonnes of crude soybean oil were imported in the 2021-22 fiscal year which is 75,000 tonnes less than the previous year.

However, during the same period, the import of soybean seeds was 13, 31,000 tonnes, which is around 2, 37,000 tonnes more than the previous year.

Besides, over 15,000 tonnes of refined soybean oil were imported during the same period and a total of 10,00,000 tonnes of refined and unrefined palm oil were imported at the same time, said the BB data.