Experts and market analysts have blamed the syndication of a group of businesses and failure of the government monitoring system for the hike in rice prices amid ample production and supply.

They have said that a section of businesses have taken it as a test case to see the new government’s reaction to price gouging.

Experts have put down the price hike substantially to hoarding, as currently, they said, there is no shortage of supply of rice.

Also, the government drives in the retail-level rice market after the January 7 general elections to prevent price gouging have had little impact.

The food ministry has continued drives in the capital and elsewhere to contain the prices, but with little success as the prices have not come down.

Food minister Sadhan Chandra Mazumder on January 17 admitted that the price has increased by Tk 6 per kilogram in the past four days.

The minister has already asked rice traders and millers to lower the prices by Tk 6 per kilogram within four days.

The food ministry’s drives on Thursday brought little impact, consumers said.

Despite drives by the ministry, prices in the capital came down merely by Tk 1 on an average per kilogram of rice by Saturday.

‘There are oligopoly and syndicates in the market and no doubt mill owners are manipulating the rice prices,’ economist Abdul Bayes told New Age on Saturday.

He termed the price hike amid adequate supply of rice as corruption and urged the government to take stern action.

‘Sudden price hike of rice takes place every year, which is not an issue of demand and supply, rather it is a complete market failure,’ Abdul Bayes said.

He also observes that the government’s businessmen-friendly policy has created problems in the market.

Food ministry officials and traders in kitchen markets said that since in the past few days, rice prices at the mill level had not reduced considerably, its prices could not be significantly brought down at the retail market.

Mohammadpur Krishi Market’s Suchana Rice Agency’s manager Alamgir Hossain told New Age on Saturday that prices are decreasing at a slow pace.

He said that few days earlier they were selling a sack of 50kg Miniket rice at Tk 3,350–3,400, but now its price is Tk 3,300.

The prices of the coarse variety rice, however, have yet to come down substantially.

A sack of 50kg coarse variety rice was sold at Tk 2,350 a few days ago, which was sold for Tk 2,280–2,300 on Saturday, said Alamgir.

He said that millers have panicked the rice market causing the prices to go up for the past few weeks.

The food ministry’s warnings and drives have had some impact, but the prices have not gone back to the pre-election level, said Alamgir.

Consumers Association of Bangladesh president Ghulam Rahman blamed the profiteering and hoarding practices of a quarter of businesses for the soaring prices.

Having said that the government’s initiatives are inadequate, he called on the authorities to conduct drives in the rice mills instead of in the shops in Dhaka city.

Abu Raihan Gazlu, owner of Matlab Rice Agency in Karwan Bazar kitchen market, said that the prices remained almost the same as the government efforts brought little result.

He said that while the millers and wholesale traders had increased Tk 400–450 per sack in the past days, following the drives they announced to reduce only Tk 100–150 per sack.

‘But in reality they have hardly followed their announcement, as we could not buy the item in their announced prices. And so here we are selling rice for higher prices,’ said Abu Raihan.

Shibly Noman Shipon, a resident of Mirpur, said that he was paying Tk 5-6 more to buy each kg of rice for the past one week.

The food ministry conducted monitoring drives in the rice markets in Uttara Badda and Shah Ali Market in Mipur.

At the sight of the monitoring teams, several rice traders shutting their shops fled the market.

The teams found that prices had not come down considerably.

The teams merely warned the traders and returned.

Former research director of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies M Asaduzzaman said that there is no reason for the price hike as the harvesting season just ended.

‘No doubt, some influential people are hoarding the staple. The government must identify the people behind the price hike,’ he said.

The economist also said that the government would have to ensure a smart agriculture supply chain, while making it compulsory for the mill owners to provide information on their stock situation through digital channel to prevent hoarding.

Food ministry deputy secretary Joynal Abedin, who led a monitoring team in Uttra Badda, told New Age that their inspection of five rice shops found that prices have not adequately come down.

According to Joynal, retailers blamed millers and wholesale traders for the situation, while the wholesale traders claimed that they were selling the rice sacks they had brought a few days earlier.

The millers have decreased the prices which are yet to reach to the traders, he said.

The ministry official said that it might take several more days for the rice prices to come down to the previous rates.

Another deputy secretary of the ministry, Marzina Akter, who led a monitoring team at Shah Ali Market, said that they found some anomalies in price rates at the shops and warned the traders.