The total rice loss has been estimated at nearly 214,000 metric tons — around 1 per cent of total boro season production following rain and flash floods from upstream hills in the haor wetlands.  However, its impact is already beginning to show in the market. Rice prices are rising again.

Visits to wholesale shops at Babubazar in Old Dhaka, Mohammadpur Krishi Market, and Karwan Bazar in the capital revealed that rice prices have increased by Tk 2 to Tk 5 per kilogram over the past three to four days. The impact has not yet reached the retail market.

Traders say the boro season is the country’s principal rice production season. Normally, rice prices fall at the beginning of this season. This year too, prices had been declining, but the trend did not last. Prices are now climbing again.

In 2017 as well, rain, early flooding, and flash floods from India submerged crops in the haor region. At that time, rice prices surged sharply. According to the Bangladesh Bank annual report (2017), rice losses during that year’s boro season amounted to 2 million tons. Floods also damaged aman crops, reducing aman rice production by 1.5 million tons.

Bangladesh Bank says the price of coarse rice rose to Tk 48 per kilogram in September 2017, which was Tk 17 higher than the previous year. This was the sharpest increase in the country’s history.

Rice is the staple food of the country. When its price rises, low-income groups and the middle class suffer the most. Rice prices have remained high since 2020. Various efforts have been made to reduce prices, but due to the absence of effective measures, prices have not declined as expected.

At the beginning of this year’s boro season, a good harvest had been anticipated. But irrigation was disrupted mid-season due to a diesel shortage, and toward the end of the season, rain and flash floods damaged paddy fields.