A severe gas shortage across industrial sectors has severely disrupted production, triggering a sharp decline in the supply of daily essentials like sugar and edible oil in domestic markets. Sugar supply has plummeted by up to seventy percent compared to normal volumes, driving prices upward across both wholesale and retail markets. Concurrently, packaged flour prices have also surged, placing an additional financial burden on consumers.

Refining raw sugar and processing wheat into flour require a steady, uninterrupted supply of industrial gas. However, chronic gas shortages have crippled refineries, preventing them from operating at full capacity. While six industrial groups previously dominated sugar processing in the country, only three remain operational: Meghna Group of Industries (MGI), City Group, and Abdul Monem Sugar Refinery. A disruption in any of these major facilities immediately destabilises the nationwide supply chain.

According to Md Abul Hashem, President of the Bangladesh Sugar Traders Association, sugar mill output has dropped drastically. Trucks remain stranded outside factory gates for extended periods without receiving allocated goods. Some manufacturing units are fulfilling less than twenty-five percent of their regular orders, while others have halted production altogether. Molvi Bazar Traders Association President Md Abul Hashem echoed these concerns, noting that inadequate gas pressure prevents companies from maintaining normal production schedules, causing severe delivery bottlenecks.

The contraction in supply has directly impacted wholesale and retail pricing structures. In Dhaka’s Mohammadpur Krishi Market, retail prices for loose sugar have climbed by ten taka per kilo, moving from one hundred and five taka to one hundred and fifteen taka. According to local retailer Humayun Kabir, a fifty-kilogram sack of sugar now costs roughly five hundred taka more than it did a week ago.

In Chattogram’s major wholesale hub, Khatunganj, loose sugar prices increased by one hundred to one hundred and fifty taka per maund over the past week, rising from around three thousand six hundred taka to a range between three thousand seven hundred and three thousand seven hundred and fifty taka. Consequently, retail shops across at least seven Chattogram neighbourhoods are now selling loose sugar for one hundred and ten taka per kilo, up from one hundred and five taka. Meanwhile, packaged flour prices have risen from a range of one hundred to one hundred and five taka to between one hundred and fifteen and one hundred and twenty taka for a two-kilogram pack.

Despite supply constraints affecting imported crude oils and oilseeds, edible oil markets remain relatively stable. Although palm oil prices increased slightly by thirty to fifty taka per maund due to international market pressures and local supply lags, soybean oil prices have held steady due to adequate existing stock levels in regional warehouses. Similarly, wholesalers confirm that wheat, flour, and refined oil inventories in Chattogram remain sufficient to prevent an immediate price shock for cooking oil.

For ordinary shoppers, however, the mounting costs are palpable. Umm Habiba, a resident of the Golpahar area in Chattogram, noted that she purchased loose sugar for one hundred and five taka mid-last week, only to see it rise to one hundred and ten taka shortly after. Traders warn that unless industrial gas supplies are restored promptly, the upward pressure on food commodities will likely intensify.