With the harvesting of Aman crops, the prices of BR-28, Paijam, Guti and aromatic rice were supposed to decrease. Instead, the rice prices have gone up by Tk 2-8 per kg in the last 10 days in Dhaka’s kitchen markets.
As farmers start harvesting and threshing early varieties of Aman paddy in the northern districts, the fear looms that their profit could be negligible due to higher production costs than last year.
Rice imports by the private sector in Bangladesh remain low despite five months having passed since the government started allowing local businesses to import the staple grain in a bid to rein in its spiralling prices in the domestic market.