Food prices are reportedly soaring in Maungdaw township, where locals said that ingredients commonly used to break Ramadan fast are being sold at marked up rates.
Nir Ahmed, a resident of Maungdaw, said the cost of essential items such as rice, chickpeas, beef, onion, sugar, cooking oil and fish have increased at food markets since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.
Mohin, a Rohingya activist, said he visited a market in Maungdaw on June 9 and found that 50 kilograms of rice cost K23,000, while the month before the same amount was sold for K19,000 to K20,000. A bag of chickpeas was being sold for K65,000 where it cost K50,000 before, he added.
Due to the markups, poor people are unable to buy the foods they normally use to break their fast, he said.
Kafayad, a daily worker in Maungdaw, said, “It is very difficult for my family to buy a kilo of fish during Ramadan as a kilo of normal fish is selling for K8,000 even though it was sold at K4,000 or K5,000 before.”
A local elder suggested the uptick may be due to lack of supplies and essential commodities being regularly transported to Maungdaw from the state capital, Sittwe.
Edited by Laignee Barron
