File photo: Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

Cargo flights carrying onion will arrive in Dhaka every day, said the commerce ministry

Another cargo aircraft carrying 105 metric tons (mts) of imported onion from Egypt arrived in Dhaka.

“An aircraft of Bismillah Air cargo with 105 tons of Egyptian onion landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 6:00 pm,” Commerce Ministry Public Relations Officer Abdul Latif Munshi said on Thursday.

Another passenger aircraft of Saudi Airlines carrying onions from Egypt landed at the airport around 1:00 am on the same day, said the without disclosing quantity, reports UNB.

From now on, cargo flights carrying 110-115mts of onion will arrive in Dhaka every day until 58,500 tons of imported onions reach Chittagong port, he said.

He further said the imported onions will be sold through TCB dealers in the Open Market Sale (OMS) at Tk45 per kg.

Earlier on Wednesday, a cargo aircraft of Silk Way Airlines of Azerbaijani private cargo airline carrying the first consignment of imported onion weighing 81.50 tons reached Dhaka from Pakistan.

Private company Nowshad Enterprise brought the consignment for direct sale in local markets.

The price of onion, a common ingredient in Bangladeshi dishes, started soaring in the country after India banned its export on September 29 last with immediate effect till further order for what it said of improving domestic availability. 

It kept surging despite various steps taken by the government, including conducting mobile court drives against traders who were selling onion at higher price as well as the sale of state-owned TCB at a cheaper price.

The price reached as high as Tk260 per kg at the retail markets on November 16.

The onion price started falling from November 17 after the Prime Minister on November 16 said that the government took initiatives to import onion through cargo planes to bring down the price along with the locally grown onion started arriving in the market.