Prices of pulse, chickpea spiral ahead of Ramadan

Prices of pulses and chickpeas, much-needed items during Ramadan, are spiralling ahead of the fasting month.
Visting the country's largest wholesale market for the cooking items, Khatunganj in Chattogram, recently, the products were found selling at 15-35% higher prices.
Talking to the Business Insider Bangladesh, traders as usual blamed on supply-shortage against increased demand this time.
Poritosh Day, general secretary of the Rice-Pulse Shop Owner Association of Khatungang, said the production of all kinds of pulse decreased in the pandemic time.
"Thus, the booking rate of those items have increased in the international market resulting in increased prices in the wholesale market," he added.
In the visit, a kg of chickpea (Australian) was found selling at Tk 62-74, which was Tk 54-55 last month. 
Canada Variety of lentil increased to Tk 63-65 per kg from Tk 45-53 over the period, while the local variety jumped to Tk 90-100 a kg from Tk 70-80.
Motor pulse was found selling at Tk 40-Tk 42 per kg, up by Tk 5-7 and Khesari pulse at Tk 70-72, up by Tk4-6.
Though the demand for the products declined in the Covi-19 pandemic, it started to sees an increase in demand with the easing of the pandemic restriction, said M Sekander, a pulse trader of Khatunganj.
"The extra demand centring the Ramadan triggered the demand and as consequence increased the price," he added.
However, the traders said the country had an adequate stock of the goods.
According to the Customs, a total of 77,522 tons of chickpeas was imported in the last seven month while it was around 1,58,053 tons in total last year.    
The pulse imports were 2,90,384 tons this year which was 1,79,114 tons last year.
SM Zakaria, additional deputy commissioner (general) of Chattogram District, told The Business Insider last week we had a meeting on the issue and made an action plan.
"To monitor the essential product markets, we started our drive from this week," he said and added that the monitoring team would visit Khatunganj very soon.