Home ›› 26 Aug 2022 ›› Front
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi on Thursday said no restrictions on importing food from Russia and Ukraine.
“There are globally 24 banks from where Bangladesh can make transactions to import food with dollar,” said Tipu.
The minister was talking to the media after a top level government meeting on import of food grains and products held at the secretariat. The meeting was attended by Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder and businessmen from various sectors of the country.
He said the importing of food products was discussed at the meeting in detail, and there is no international issue regarding this.
Replying to a question Tipu said, “Initiatives are being undertaken to expand pharmaceutical exports, as well as efforts to raise dollar income from other industries.”
“There will be no bar on wheat and rice imports. Open market sale (OMS) will start selling daily commodities across the country from September 1. Under this program, Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) card holders can also buy 10kg of rice at a cheap price,” Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said.
Recently, the government has made the procedure of importing wheat from Russia is nearly complete. Bangladesh would first purchase three and a half lakh tonnes of wheat from the nation. The deal should be inked within the next several days.
On August 17, officials of the two countries discussed the purchase of wheat and fertilizer from Russia. Basically, they discuss about the price and process. The Food Directorate and the Director General of Prodintorg will sign the agreement.
After signing the deal, Bangladesh will import wheat within 45 days of the letter of credit being opened.
Fertilizer import was also discussed in the bilateral meeting. There may be an agreement to import 1 lakh 20 thousand tonnes of Muriate of Potash (MOP) fertilizer very soon.
Bangladesh has a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Russia on fertilizer import. According to the agreement, Russia was supposed to supply 180 thousand tonnes of MOP fertilizer in 2021. But, only 60,000 tons of fertilizer was imported until the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war.
At the end of the meeting, Prime Minister’s Private Industry and Investment Adviser Salman F Rahman discussed about export of medicines and the import of wheat and fertilizers.
“We have recommended some steps on how to increase pharmaceutical exports to Russia. Following the sanctions, there was a scarcity of pharmaceuticals in Russia. As a result, the need for medication in the country has skyrocketed,” Salman said.
“Russia faces fuel oil sanctions so we can’t import until the sanctions are lifted,” he added.
About bringing oil from India, he said that we’ll bring oil from where we can get it cheaply.
