200 tons of onions imported by Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) in Chittagong have been completely destroyed. These onions were imported from Turkey. Due to the delay in sending the documents, it took a long time to release the onions from the port, said TCB. The market value of spoiled onions is about half a crore rupees. The TCB authorities threw these spoiled onions in front of Chittagong CEPZ Navy Market. TCB claims that the Turkish exporting company should take responsibility for this. Meanwhile, due to spoilage of onions, this product is not available in TCB’s fair price shops. As a result, common consumers are deprived of fair price onions.
According to TCB sources, TCB imported 11 lots of onions of various quantities from Turkey. The ship which came to Chittagong port with imported onions was stuck for a month. TCB could not redeem the onions for 1 month as the supplier could not provide proper documents. After a long time, after releasing the onions from the ship, it was found that about 200 tons of onions were wasted. The top of the onion has turned black. Some onions have rotted. Good onion picking in front of CEPZ Navy Market next to TCB office last week. About 200 tons of onions were thrown away after sorting on Wednesday night. Tokais were seen picking onions from Bhagar.
The question has arisen as to who will take the responsibility of this huge amount of government onion wastage. However, TCB claimed that the exporters and suppliers did not provide proper documents. Due to this they could not redeem the goods on time. Moreover, according to the agreement of the supplier with TCB, the bill will be paid for as many tons of goods as will be received in TCB’s warehouse. The government will not pay the bill for the spoiled product under any circumstances.
Those concerned said that there are rules for the urgent redemption of perishable products. But in the case of onion redemption, the importer TCB and the exporter are responsible for these two organizations. Both sides have shown indifference in overall preparations including submission of documents for onion release. Due to which huge amount of onion is lost in this cheap market. It has been found that TCB is not able to provide onions to the products it sells in the truck sale. The common buyers are therefore deprived of this product at a fair price even temporarily.
A dealer of TCB named Kabir Hesen of Chandgaon area told Jugantar that the organization is not able to supply as per the demand due to the large quantity of onions being spoiled. Many buyers come back to our truck sale to buy onions at low prices. We have nothing to do.
TCB Chittagong regional office head Jamal Uddin Ahmed told Jugantar that about 200 tons of onions have been wasted due to not being able to release them on time. After sorting, the spoiled onions had to be thrown away. The release of the onions has been delayed due to the failure of Turkish exporters to provide shipping documents on time. Due to this, about 200 tons of onions in one lot were wasted. The representatives of the exporting company picked the onions themselves. We do not understand bad or damaged products. So TCB is not responsible.
