After meeting with refiners today, the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC) came to the conclusion that there is currently no edible oil scarcity in the nation. According to the committee, the ongoing edible oil problem is man-made, and the local markets are overstocked with culinary goods. Since local kitchen stores are experiencing a shortage of both branded bottled and non-branded loose soybean oil, which has caused a price increase, the BTTC spoke with the nation’s top refiners on the state of the edible oil supply as a whole. Top refiners at the meeting stated that there isn’t a supply shortage in the market and that, in January of this year, their supply of soybean oil has climbed by 25% year over year.
Additionally, edible oil imports increased by almost 35% between December 2024 and January 2025, according to customs data, and letters of credit increased at a comparable rate. According to the BTTC statement published today, several sources also attested to the fact that edible oil prices have stayed stable globally and that imports are guaranteeing stable supply and pricing in the local market. Amitabh Chakraborty, an adviser to City Group, one of the nation’s leading exporters of food grains and the firm that sells Teer-branded oil, stated during the conference that the company supplied around 50,700 tonnes of oil in January 2025, of which 22,242 tonnes were bottled.
During the same month in 2024, however, the group provided 14,262 tonnes in bottled form. According to Taslim Shahriar, senior assistant general manager of the Meghna Group of Industries, the company supplied 15,000 tons of bottled oil in January this year, up from 12,000 tonnes in the same month the previous year.
About 47,668 tonnes of edible oil were delivered by Meghna Group, a major commodity importer and processor that sells Fresh-branded oil, last month, up from just 25,000 tonnes in the same month the previous year, he said. According to Md. Shafiul Ather Taslim, director of finance and operations at TK Group, another significant importer and commodity processor that sells oil under the Pusti brand, the company’s supply of bottled soybean oil increased by 24% in January 2025 compared to the previous year. Compared to 9,500 tons in the same month last year, the number increased to approximately 11,810 tonnes this year. The refiners remarked that the perceived market issue may be caused by grassroots stockpiling by certain individuals. They claimed that in order to maximize income, many may have turned to cracking open bottles and selling the oil in large quantities. Retailers and wholesalers in key towns, such as Dhaka, Chattogram, and Barishal, told that the oil supply had decreased after the government denied refiners’ requests to hike prices in January. This was at the time of the meeting.
The cost of a liter of loose soybean oil increased by over 4% in the last week, hitting Tk 180 to Tk 182 today. Two-liter bottles of soybean oil, palm oil, and rice bran oil are now more expensive at retail. A one-liter container of rice bran oil, for example, now costs Tk 210 instead of Tk 205, a 6.41 percent rise. The BTTC chairman, Moinul Khan, who presided over today’s meeting, informed that the refiners promised not to raise the price of soybean oil in the days leading up to Ramadan. “The nation’s imports have grown, and the market’s supply has followed suit. “There isn’t any kind of shortage,” he declared. He also mentioned that about 150,000 tonnes of oil are in the pipeline and will reach the nation prior to Ramadan. The government has lowered import taxes on sunflower and canola oils in an effort to ease the strain on soybean and palm oils.
Source: The Daily Star
