Tipu discounts wheat crisis amid rising price

Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi on Wednesday underplayed concern over wheat price saying the country has enough stock of the food grain.

He was briefing the media after a meeting of the Task Force committee on commodity prices and market monitoring at the Secretariat.

He said India's ban on wheat export won't affect Bangladesh which can import it from the neighbouring country through G2G deal.

He said India slapped a ban on other countries.

He also blamed some unscrupulous businesspeople for price hike of the essentials.

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Talking about the edible oil, the minister said the price depends on global market.

“We have to import 90 per cent edible oil from the international market, " he said adding the domestic price will be influenced by rising global price.

He said the government has decided to increase the production of mustard and rice bran oil to stabilise the market.

Bangladesh is capable of producing 50-60 thousand tonnes of rice bran and it can be increased to 700,000 tonnes, he said.

The meeting also discussed the overall situation of onion, wheat, and salt and their supply.

Referring to onion, Tipu said “The production cost of per kg onion is Tk 20-22. We should provide incentives to farmers so they can increase their production. Last year, the price of onions was good. We are on alert about the onion.”

Replying to a question, the minister said “We have to tackle the edible oil crisis in a coordinated way but we hope there will be no crisis of edible oil.”