Maungdaw, Arakan State: Ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, the prices of essential items, including rice, chickpeas (sona), beef, onion, sugar, edible oil and fish have been increasing in the kitchen markets of Maungdaw Townships, according to Kala Meah, a trader from Maungdaw.
He said: “Suddenly, the prices of essential commodities have been skyrocketing in Maungdaw since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.”
When Abul Khair, a local villager from Udaung paid a visit to a kitchen market on the morning of 18 June he found that 60kg bags of rice were being sold at 23,000 kyats,while in the first week of June the same bags were costing 20,000 kyats. Elsewhere in the country similar bags of rice cost 18,000 to 19,000 kyats each.
Abul Khair also said that during the holy month of Ramadan, most people break their fast (Iftar) with chickpeas, but a bag of chickpea is now being sold for 51,000 kyats, when previously it was being sold for 42,000 kyats, which means poor people are unable to afford the bags.
Villagers believe that the prices of different essential goods such as chickpeas, sugar, onion, edible oil, beef, quality fish and rice, will increase for the month of Ramadan said a local elder on condition of anonymity.
He also said that there was a shortage of essential goods in the kitchen markets because the Rakhine trading agents, the only people who bring goods into the area, are not transporting goods from Akyab (Sittwe) to northern Arakan State.
Another trader in Maungdaw said that the Burmese Government has taken no steps to stop the price of essential items skyrocketing.
Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
