Extortion, middlemen driving up commodity prices: Traders
Commodity Prices Surge as Extortion and Middlemen Grip Bangladesh's Food Supply Chain
Thebangladaily.com – Household budgets across Bangladesh are under mounting pressure as the cost of everyday food staples climbs sharply, with traders and industry leaders identifying unchecked extortion at road checkpoints and the entrenched power of intermediaries as the twin engines behind the inflation. Speaking at a roundtable convened by the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) at its Motijheel headquarters in Dhaka on Monday, a broad coalition of market operators, manufacturers, and consumer advocates laid out a detailed picture of how prices are being inflated at every stage between farm gate and consumer shelf.
Vegetables and the Road Toll
Among the most visceral examples cited was the trajectory of fresh vegetable pricing. Abul Kalam Azad, Organizing Secretary of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), described how a kilogram of vegetables that should retail at roughly Tk 30 is being pushed to Tk 80 or even Tk 100 by the time it reaches urban markets. The mechanism, he explained, is straightforward: drivers and transporters face repeated informal levies at checkpoints, and middlemen layered between producer and retailer each extract a margin. The cumulative effect is a price that bears little resemblance to the actual cost of production.
"Extortion on roads and the influence of middlemen push the price of vegetables from Tk 30 to as high as Tk 80 or Tk 100 per kilogram," Azad stated, urging immediate government intervention to bring order back to the market.
Law Enforcement and Market Manipulation
The problem, several speakers argued, is not merely structural but institutional. Farid Uddin, President of the Shyambazar Agricultural Products Wholesale Market Owners Association, went further than most, alleging that law enforcement officers themselves participate directly in extracting payments at wholesale markets. His remarks pointed to a feedback loop: traders who pay informal tolls pass the cost downstream, while the very agencies tasked with ensuring fair trade become part of the extraction chain.
Uddin also flagged a separate form of market distortion in the rice trade. He alleged that corporate players are repackaging ordinary, standard-grade rice under the brand name "Miniket" and selling it at a premium, even though no rice variety by that name actually exists. For a country where rice is the dietary cornerstone, such labelling tricks can quietly inflate the cost of the most basic staple without any change in nutritional content or quality.
Political Cycles and Local Market Control
Two speakers tied price volatility to the political calendar. Kazi Anisuzzaman, General Secretary of the Khilgaon City Corporation Super Market Owners Association, and Shawkat Hossain, a leader of the Fakirapul Market Traders Association, observed that whenever a new government assumes power, informal political controllers tend to consolidate influence over local markets. The implication is that price stability becomes hostage to electoral transitions, with traders facing new sets of unofficial obligations each time the political landscape shifts.
Corporate Consolidation and Supply Shocks
A recurring theme across the discussion was the concentration of market power in the hands of a small number of large firms. Bikash Chandra Saha, representing the Pulse and Lentil Crashing Mill Owners Association, documented a concrete episode: chickpea prices jumped by Tk 10 to Tk 15 per kilogram within a span of just ten days, a spike he attributed to deliberate supply restrictions imposed by major corporate groups. The speed of the increase suggested coordination rather than ordinary market fluctuation.
Golam Mawla, General Secretary of the Moulvibazar Traders Association, warned that edible oil and sugar shortages were imminent because market control had consolidated into the hands of a few large companies. His caution came with a partial rebuttal from the corporate side: Taslim Shahriar, Senior Deputy General Manager of Meghna Group, noted that sugar prices at the mill gate remained stable at the time of the discussion, suggesting that at least one major input had not yet entered a speculative upward spiral.
Bakery Sector on the Brink
The pressure on downstream manufacturers was equally acute. Jalal Uddin, President of the Bread and Biscuit Manufacturers Association, projected a 20 per cent increase in bakery product prices within days, driven by simultaneous rises in the cost of flour, cooking oil, and sugar. He added that twenty factories had already been forced to shut down under the weight of input-cost inflation, a figure that signals not just higher consumer prices but a contraction in domestic production capacity.
Monitoring Gaps and Media Conduct
Zakir Hussain, General Secretary of the Bangladesh Supermarket Owners Association, placed part of the blame on institutional neglect, attributing sudden price jumps to the absence of proper monitoring and enforcement of price-control mechanisms. Without routine inspection of wholesale and retail margins, he implied, the system defaults to whatever the most powerful actor in the chain dictates.
Abu Saleh Mohammad Imran, Trade Consultant at the Ministry of Commerce, addressed the role of information flows, advising media outlets to avoid sensationalized headlines that can trigger panic buying and thereby amplify price movements that might otherwise remain contained. His remark underscored the feedback loop between public perception and actual market behaviour in a commodity economy.
Government Response Ahead of Ramadan
Closing the session, FBCCI Administrator Fazlul Hoque assured participants that the recommendations tabled by traders would be taken to the relevant ministries for discussion. The timing is significant: with the holy month of Ramadan approaching, demand for cooking oil, sugar, rice, and fresh produce typically surges, making any existing supply-chain distortion more visible and more painful for consumers. The administration's stated intent is to keep commodity prices stable through the period, though the feasibility of that goal depends on whether the ministries act with the urgency the traders demanded.
For ordinary households in Dhaka, Chittagong, and smaller towns, the stakes are immediate. A vegetable that should cost Tk 30 now costs Tk 100; a loaf of bread may carry a 20 per cent surcharge within the week; chickpeas and lentils have already moved sharply upward. The roundtable made clear that the inflation is not a uniform, weather-driven phenomenon but a patchwork of targeted extractions, corporate supply management, and institutional gaps. Whether the state responds with genuine enforcement or with another round of assurances remains the question that will define the coming weeks.
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