Government mobile shops selling eggs, milk, broiler chicken, beef and mutton at affordable prices ran out of stock within a couple of hours of opening sales on Thursday due to a huge demand for these products.

People have been thronging the government shops selling protein items at affordable rates as their prices were much higher in the city markets. Consequently, sales at these shops were usually ending within a couple of hours of opening, said sources.

The Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock took the initiative to sell milk, eggs and meat at affordable prices from 10 March through mobile shops at 30 sales points in the capital during the month of Ramadan to give low- and middle-income people a relief from the skyrocketing prices of the products.

A mobile sales van at Mirpur Kalshi area opened with 100 kg of beef, two kg of mutton, 100 litre of milk and 30 kg of broiler chicken at 10:00 am on Thursday. It finished selling all the goods by 11:30 am, said sources.

The mobile shop did not bring eggs on that day as the truck of eggs got stuck at Gabtoli due to a strike after a traffic accident, said Rakibul Haque Rahim, cashier of the sales van.

Visiting a number of government mobile shops in different areas, our correspondent found that huge crowds of people – mostly those with a fixed income – were surrounding the vans to buy protein items at affordable rates as their prices have been rising rapidly in the common markets.

People with low income were standing in queues long before the government shops opened, but the number of people with middle-income started increasing gradually.

Ferdousi, a domestic help, said, “I bought 2 litres of milk and 1 kg of beef from the shop. The last time I had beef was on the day of Shab-e-Barat. I could not buy any more meat since then. I could afford beef today as the government shop was selling it at a cheap price of Tk600 per kg, while the meat shops are selling it at Tk750-780 per kg.”

Consumers Association of Bangladesh Vice-President SM Nazer Hossain told the Daily Sun that sales at the government shops end within a couple of hours due to inadequate supply. As a result, a large number of consumers cannot avail the services of these shops.

Dr Md Shahinur Alam, director (extension) of the Department of Livestock Services, said they supplied 3,500 kg of beef, 119 kg of mutton, 1,500 kg of broiler chicken and 3,000 litres of milk to the mobile shops on Thursday.

“The demand for these products is very high, so we are trying to increase their supply,” he said.