Here we go again!

We are alarmed at the overnight surge of the prices of soybean and palm oil, following Indonesia's export ban on crude and refined palm oil on Wednesday. The prices have gone up by Tk 10-15 per litre once again in a market that has seen prices raised in seven phases in the last one year alone. Though traders say the latest hike is due to a supply crunch, according to the National Board of Revenue (NBR), about 850,000 tonnes of palm oil and 406,000 tonnes of soybean oil have been imported in the first three and a half months of this year, which should last the country at least another one and a half months.

Traders alleged that the refiner companies and dealers manipulated the supply of the essential product in a bid to push the prices up further. Unfortunately, this has become a trend in the edible oil market. We have been observing with increasing apprehension how the government has failed to reign in the unscrupulous businessmen who are consistently creating artificial crises in the market. According to the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection, prices are being manipulated at four stages of the value chain involving refiners, dealers or supply order traders, wholesale traders and retailers. The syndicate is so powerful that even the government's attempts to stabilise the market—through import of edible oil, withdrawal of import duties and fixing of prices—seem to have had limited to no effect in easing the consumers' plight.

We understand that 53 percent of the cooking oil used in Bangladesh is palm oil, of which 80 percent comes from Indonesia. Indonesia's export ban on crude and refined palm oil will thus have a negative impact in the future, if the government does not act fast to import palm oil at competitive prices from alternative sources. Shortage of supply in the international market will likely affect domestic prices in the near future, which is all the more reason for the government to take stern action against the syndicates who have been causing havoc in the market since the beginning of the year. It must ensure fair price adjustment in light of international prices, and punish errant traders and importers who try to exploit the situation as well as rectify its lax oversight of kitchen markets. 

Bangladeshis, particularly from lower-income groups, have been struggling to make ends meet with prices of all essential items spiralling out of control over the past few months. The rise of edible oil prices, yet again, is inhumane. We are at a loss to understand why the government has allowed the organised syndicate of unscrupulous businessmen to hold such a crucial market hostage to their criminal whims. The people deserve better than to be at the mercy of such greed.