Mentioning that there is a surplus stock of salt in the country, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader on Tuesday said action will be taken against those who are trying to destabilise the market through spreading rumours.

“There’s no crisis of salt in the country. Rather, there’s a surplus stock,” he said while speaking at a press conference at the AL president’s Dhanmondi political office. 

Quader, also road transport and bridges minister, said rumours are being spread about salt in a planned way. “It’s a conspiracy, anarchy and evil attempt.”

He also said those are provoking the rumours are opposition. “They want to make political gains and they want snap polls.”

Turning to rice, the minister said there is no crisis of the staple in the country. “There’s enough stock of rice. The government launches the activities on Wednesday to buy rice.” 
 

The police headquarters on Tuesday urged the consumers to call the National Emergency Number hotline at 999 or to contact nearest police station if anyone demands excessive price for salt.

It made the request after a rumour about the price rise of salt was spread in the country, said Sohel Rana, AIG (Media) of the police headquarters.

Spread of the rumour about the price rise of salt is misleading the people, he said.

However, the Commerce and the Information ministries have confirmed that there are six million tonnes of salt in stock, which is much higher than the demand in the country.

Therefore, there is no possibility of raising the price of salt. So the people of the country have been urged not to listen to the rumours and not to be confused.

An official of local Election Commission (EC) office was placed on a four-day remand as he allegedly helped Rohingya people to get National Identity Card (NID) of Bangladesh illegally.

The accused was identified as Nazim Uddin, Office Assistant of Chattogram EC office.

Metropolitan Magistrate Mehnaz Rahman passed the order after the investigation officer of the case sought seven-day remand to interrogate Nazim, said Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) (prosecution) Md Kamruzzaman of Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP).

Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit (CTTCU) arrested Nazim from the EC office on Monday noon.  

So far, a total of 11 persons including 4 EC officials were brought under justice over the matter.

Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi on Tuesday said the first consignment of Egyptian onion, which was scheduled to arrive here today, will now enter the country on Wednesday.

He came up with the information while talking to reporters at the Secretariat at noon.

The minister blamed difficulties in the loading process for the delay in the arrival of the onion shipment.

He said the government started importing the cooking ingredient by air and ships as part of a special initiative to cool down the overheated onion market.

“A total of 50,000 metric tonnes of onion are being imported by air,” Tipu Munshi said, adding that the first consignment from Egypt is on its way to Dhaka by a cargo plane of Saudi Airlines.

The plane will land at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Wednesday midnight, he said, adding that other consignments will come on a regular basis.

The minister said the imported onion will be sold at a fair price through the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.

Around 12,000 metric tonnes of onion are entering the country through sea routes while locally grown variety started to hit the market, he said, hoping that the onion price will decline rapidly.

Tipu Munshi ruled out the possibility of any hike in edible salt’s price, saying a total of 6 lakh metric tonnes of salt are currently in stock.

Blaming dishonest traders for the current turmoil in the salt market, he urged the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection to take action against those responsible through proper monitoring.

A three-day international exposition on the food processing industry will begin in the city on Thursday.

Bangladesh Agro-Processors’ Association (BAPA) and Rainbow Exhibition & Event Management Services Ltd will jointly organise the exhibition at the International Convention City Bashundhara (ICCB).

At a press conference at the Economic Reporters’ Forum (ERF) on Tuesday, the organisers said the show will have two segments - “9th Agro Bangladesh Expo 2019” and “6th Rice & Graintech Expo Bangladesh.”

BAPA President and Pran-RFL Group Chairman Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, Senior Vice-president SM Jahangir Hossain, General Secretary Ittehadul Haque and Rainbow Managing Director Chan Mohan Saha spoke on the occasion.

They said the exhibition will play a vital role to introduce Bangladeshi local market players with the international market and create a bridge with the international technology and products.

“This will be big platform for the entrepreneurs in the sector to showcase their products and services to the local as well as international buyers to expand their business,” said Ahsan Khan.

He said BAPA was found in 1998 with 13 members with some specific objectives such as to protect, develop, support and promote all measures and steps towards growing, producing, processing, manufacturing and marketing local products.

BAPA officials said currently the organisation consists of 300 members who are exporting goods to 144 countries across the world with an export volume of $372 million.

The expo will remain open for all from 11am to 7pm every day till Saturday. Companies from 15 countries will take part in the exposition.

The fair will feature business matching sessions along with technical sessions where industry experts will present their views on specific topics.