Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called for stopping food stocking which is leading to a crisis in the market amid fears of a novel coronavirus outbreak, bdnews24.com.

After a death from the coronavirus and cancellations of public gatherings, panic has set in and spread to the markets of Bangladesh. In fear, many have resorted to purchasing a month’s worth of food products causing a crisis in the market which in turn resulted in the price hikes of different staple foods, including rice.

“I see some people buying stuffs and taking them home to stock. I saw a person buy 30kg of salt. I don’t know what he will do with 30kg of salt,” Hasina said after casting her vote in the by-poll to the Dhaka-10 parliamentary seats at Dhaka City College on Saturday.

“The price of onions went up once, due to which many bought huge amounts of onions to stock. The result was that those onions rotted and were thrown away.”

She called for easing pressure on the market and said, “Please don’t panic and gather according to your needs.”

“We have 1.7 million tonnes of food in government stock. We have 350,000 tonnes of wheat in stock. In addition, non-government rice mills have a lot in stock and we also have crops in fields.

“We can buy food worth a year with the kind of reserve that we have. So there should be no worries.”

Saying that the government is keeping an eye out to keep the market stable, Hasina called for the public to stay aware and conscious.