The government has decided to import 150,000 tonnes of wheat from Argentina and Russia to maintain a steady supply of the food grain amid coronavirus pandemic.
Sarwar Mahmud, director general of the Directorate General of Food, confirmed the matter to The Business Post on Monday.
There is no shortage of rice in the country right now due to good Boro harvest, but there may be shortage of wheat, said the official.
“The government is going to procure wheat from Argentina and Russia. A consignment of 50,000 tonnes of wheat is on its way to Bangladesh from Argentina. An Argentine ship will berth at the Chittagong Sea Port in the middle of May,” he said.
He said a tonne of wheat will cost more than 260 US dollars and that an international tender procedure was followed to procure the wheat.
The food ministry official said another 100,000 tonnes of wheat will be purchased from Russia under a government to government (G2G) deal.
"Since this is a G2G agreement, a tonne of the food grain will cost us less than 260 dollars," Sarwar said.
Russia is cutting its wheat sales amid a looming global food shortage.
In this regard, a high official of food ministry on condition of anonymity said, “Since we have a good understanding with Moscow, we are expecting to have the Russian shipment sometime in June."
The 150,000 tonnes of wheat will be provided to Open Market Sales programme, Bangladesh Armed Forces and Bangladesh Police, The Business Post has learnt.
As of Monday, the food stock of the country stood at 1.33 million tonnes of which rice constituted 1.05 million tonnes.
During a press conference the same day, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that her government had made a decision to procure 2.1 million tonnes of food grains, which include rice (boiled and non-boiled combined) and some 80,000 tonnes of wheat, from home farmers.
The government, however, had failed to meet its rice and wheat procurement targets last year.
The rice procurement target was set at 1.6 million tonnes but the actual procurement stood at 1.4 million tonnes. To avert any food shortage, the government has decided to procure 2.1 million tonnes of food grains from across the country this year.
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