Commerce Minister Khandaker Abdul Muktadir has warned that consumers must not be put under pressure through abnormal egg price increases, excessive profits or artificial shortages. He urged businesses to act responsibly and supply eggs at affordable prices while ensuring reasonable profits at every stage from producers to retailers.
The minister made the remarks during a meeting with egg and poultry businesses and other stakeholders at the Commerce Ministry’s conference room in the Secretariat on Sunday, September 27, to review egg production and supply.
Muktadir said eggs are an important staple food for ordinary people.
Unusual price increases directly burden low- and middle-income households, he said. Businesses are entitled to reasonable profits, but they cannot destabilize the market through excessive profits, artificial shortages or supply disruptions.
Calling for a long-term plan to keep egg prices stable throughout the year, the minister said the price gap between producers and consumers must be reviewed.
He said authorities need to identify where unusual costs or excessive profits enter the supply chain.
The government wants to maintain a business-friendly environment while also keeping essential commodity prices affordable and protecting consumers, Muktadir said. The government and businesses must work together toward those goals.
Businesses at the meeting said rising prices for maize, soybean and other poultry feed ingredients had pushed production costs to about Tk 11 an egg. According to their figures, the average producer-level selling price was Tk 7.91 an egg in January and rose to about Tk 11.30 in September.
They said eggs are sold below production cost for much of the year, although periods of rising prices draw the most attention. Between the producer and retail stages, Tk 1.5 to Tk 2 is generally added across the different links in the chain.
To reduce seasonal price swings, businesses proposed storage facilities that could preserve surplus eggs for one to one-and-a-half months. They also recommended rationalizing turnover and income taxes, controlling poultry feed ingredient prices, reducing transport and marketing barriers, and publishing daily production, supply and market price data.
Businesses said egg prices would fall within the next two weeks.
The commerce minister assured them that their proposals would receive serious consideration and said the government would work to resolve reasonable problems in the sector. But authorities must also ensure that no party exploits the situation to impose abnormal price increases, he added.
The government’s goal is for producers to receive fair prices, businesses to earn reasonable profits and consumers to buy eggs at affordable rates, Muktadir said.
He said relevant agencies would monitor and take necessary action if artificial shortages, unusual supply disruptions or unjustified price increases occurred.
Commerce Secretary Md Ataur Rahman Khan; Additional Secretary for IIT Ahmed Ullah; Kazi Farms Ltd Director Kazi Zisan Hasan; Breeders Association President Mahbubur Rahman; Mashiur Rahman of the Feed Industries Association; Aftab Alam, an executive committee member of the Animal Health Companies Association of Bangladesh; Consumers Association of Bangladesh Organizing Secretary Abul Kalam Azad; Md Nazrul Islam of BPICC and the Feed Industries Association of Bangladesh; and Safir Rahman of the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association attended the meeting.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report