Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi on Wednesday underplayed concern over wheat price saying the country has enough stock of the food grain.

He was briefing the media after a meeting of the Task Force committee on commodity prices and market monitoring at the Secretariat.

Also read: No impact on shipments of wheat already contracted for export: India

He said India's ban on wheat export won't affect Bangladesh which can import it from the neighbouring country through G2G deal.

He said India slapped a ban on other countries. 

He also blamed some unscrupulous businesspeople for price hike of the essentials.

Talking about the edible oil, the minister said the price depends on global market.

Replying to a question on lowering the rising prices of commodities, the commerce minister said, "I don't know the answer right now; I have to go to Argentina-Brazil to know the answer.”

“We can't do anything until prices fall in the international market,” the minister said.

"Edible oil prices have risen in our country due to rising prices in the international market," he added.

“We have to import 90% edible oil from the international market,” he said adding the domestic price will be influenced by rising global price.

He said the government has decided to increase production of mustard and rice bran oil to stabilise the market.

Bangladesh is capable of producing 50-60 thousand tonnes of rice bran and it can be increased to 7 lakh tonnes, which will be 25 per cent of the demand, he said. 

The meeting also discussed the overall situation of onion, wheat and salt and its supply.

Also read: Efforts on to import wheat from 5 alternative sources: Tipu Munshi

Referring to onion, Tipu said “The production cost of per kg onion is Tk 20-22. We should provide incentives to farmers so they can increase their production. Last year, the price of onions was good. We are on alert about the onion.”

Replying to a question, the minister said “We have to tackle the edible oil crisis in a coordinated way but we hope there will be no crisis of edible oil.”The importers say supply, pipelines, LCs and everything in the country has remained on the right track as per the demand of the domestic market, he said adding after adjusting the edible oil price, the market is becoming normal.