Two wholesale markets of essentials at Jatrabari and Khilgaon will be set up to check influence of brokers and middlemen in manipulating prices of vegetables and other perishable items.

Sources said the wholesale markets are going to be set up in view of reports that producers do not get reasonable prices compared to what retailers get.

A high-level meeting on Thursday will finalise details about the markets to be managed by the DCC.

Agriculture Minister M K Anwar, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, DCC Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka and others concerned are likely to attend the meeting.

The inter-ministerial body will be tasked with providing information in advance about demand and supply of essentials and suggesting measures to keep the market stable.

The decisions were taken at a meeting yesterday with Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury in the chair. Commerce Secretary Suhel Ahmad and representatives from the National Board of Revenue (NBR), Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and Dhaka City Corporation were present at the meeting held at the commerce ministry.

The committee headed by the additional secretary of the commerce ministry includes representatives of the ministries of food, commerce, agriculture and industries and the DAE, BBS and NBR. It will sit for 15 days to stake stock of the market and make recommendations.

Yesterday's meeting also noted that essential prices vary from market to market in the capital as well as between these markets and markets in other parts of the country, meeting sources said.

"In fact, the government has no mechanism now to assess the demand and supply of essential items and this is creating a lot of problems in decision-making. The newly formed body will address that problem," said a top official of the commerce ministry.