Bangladesh cut-price shops fail to meet demand

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh's cut-price shopping outlets are struggling to meet demand in the face of soaring food costs, officials and witnesses said on Saturday.

Bangladesh set up over 2,000 "fair price" retail shops across the country in January under the management of private sector dealers.

Some 100 such shops were also opened by the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) to help poorer people obtain affordable food.

Hundreds of people queue up in such shops every morning, but many leave empty-handed as stocks run out.

"The number of buyers are rising as middle-income people are also crowding the shops meant for poor people," a BDR official running such a shop at Dhaka's Badda area told Reuters.

Each family is entitled to buy 3 kg of rice a day at 25 taka ($0.36) per kg. In the open market, rice sells at 40 taka per kg, double the price of a year ago.

The price of wheat, edible oil and pulses has also doubled over the last 12 months.

"I have been waiting there for long, but when my turn came, the seller said sorry," said Mafiza Khatun, 30 a worker at a garment factory.

Food prices have been rising on global markets, and have also been pushed up after floods and deadly Cyclone Sidr destroyed nearly 2 million tonnes of standing crops and killed some 3,500 people late last year.

In addition to the "fair price" shops the government also has a vulnerable group feeding (VGF) programme that provides free food, mostly rice and wheat, to nearly 16 million poor people until late April.