Due to the increase in demand during the month of Ramadan, the local markets including Shamsernagar, Bhanugachha Bazar, Munsibazar and Adampur in Kamalganj upazila of Moulvibazar have been flooded with artificially ripened bananas. Besides, the price of banana is also becoming abnormal.
Since there is no official pricing of bananas, it is collecting prices from the consumers as much as possible. As a result, ordinary consumers are getting lost.
It can be seen that the traders have arranged bananas in different places of the market. Of these, Champa banana and Sagar banana are the most numerous. In addition to ripe bananas, raw banana sticks cut from trees have also been kept. However, they are being sold at inflated prices after being kept in pits or baked with chemicals.
Due to the presence of Ramadan markets on Saturdays and Sundays, a large presence of bananas has been noticed in the hat bazaars. However, the price was not seen anywhere. A dozen small ripe champa bananas are being sold at Rs 80 to Rs 90. Another hali is being sold at 25 to 30 rupees. In the case of Sagar banana, one hali is being sold for 40 rupees. However, the locals are of the opinion that most of these bananas in the market are artificially rolled and of low quality.
Consumers Shahinur Begum, Shamsul Islam and Jamshed Ali said that the price of Champa banana was 15 rupees a few days ago. Before the start of the month of Ramadan, the banana hali is now being sold at 30 rupees.
They also said that since no one supervised the banana traders, the traders were charging exorbitant prices. As a result, low-income fasting people like us have lost their way.
Abdul Hannan, president of Shamsernagar Bazar Banik Kalyan Samiti, confirmed the fact that the price of bananas has gone up during Ramadan. However, it is not our responsibility to take care of these issues.
Moulvibazar Assistant Director of the Department of Consumer Protection. Al-Amin said that in fact, the market has shown that the price of bananas is high. However, there is some problem as the price of banana has not been fixed officially. Even then, if the price of extra banana is taken somewhere, action will be taken after investigation.