Egg prices start to cool off

Egg prices eventually showed a downslide in the capital's kitchen markets on Friday, to a substantial relief of the general consumers, one week after reaching its culmination.

This correspondent found a dozen of eggs selling at Tk 145-Tk150 at Fakirapool, Shantinagar, Khilgaon and Malibagh markets on the day.

Earlier, the price of a dozen of eggs had reached all-time high of Tk170-Tk180 just a few days ago that had caused utter frustrations among the consumers.

Meanwhile, the monitoring teams of the government continued their drives on Friday to check the spiraling prices of eggs and other essential commodities in the markets.

As part of the move, the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) carried out drives on Friday against errant egg traders in the capital.

Chief of DNCRP Dhaka office Md Abdul Jabbar Mandal and assistant director at DNCRP head office Md Hasanuzzaman jointly led the drives at Shah Ali Market under Shah Ali thana.

During the drives, the team also enquired about whether the traders were selling other essential commodities at an exorbitant rate and protecting the rights of the consumers.

The DNCRP team also fined two wholesalers -- Helal and Munir -- Tk15,000 and Tk30,000 respectively for not preserving cash receipts and hanging the price charts of eggs in their shops.

The team also sealed off Bhai Bhai Shop for selling eggs as organic, without keeping any proof against those.

An official of DNCRP told the FE that their drives will continue against the unscrupulous traders to stop making extra profits from the customers.

He claimed that the traders at Shah Ali Market were selling a dozen of eggs between Tk 115 and Tk 120 on Friday.

Citing the reason of the recent hike in petroleum oil prices, a section of errant traders in the capital and across the country were selling a dozen of eggs between Tk160 and Tk 170 over the past one week.

But as a consequence of the government's strict monitoring, and punishment by the departments concerned, the traders, mainly the profit-monger ones, started reducing the prices of the consumers' low-cost source of protein.