Rice racketeering run by unscrupulous businessmen has rendered the staple food market unstable on different pretexts, prompting the government to import rice after four years. Even then, prices of all types of rice have ratcheted up without any reason, an official of the food ministry said.
In order to prevent the situation from getting worse in future, it has been decided to procure rice from domestic sources as well as to import two to three lakh metric tonnes (MT) of rice from aboard on G-to-G (Government-to-Government) basis through international tenders in the current 2020-21 Fiscal Year, said sources of the Ministry of Finance and Food.
According to the sources, the mill owners increased the prices of rice in the market even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic by not co-operating properly with the government's Boro rice procurement drive in last August.
As a result, prices of fine, medium and coarse rice in the wholesale and retail market jacked up by two to four taka per kg. Rice is still being sold at that extra price. It was not possible for the government to reduce the price even by fixing the price of rice.
But the sources in the Ministry of Food say that the prices of rice are not going to shoot up further.
Meanwhile, since the country has achieved self-sufficiency, rice has not been imported by the government since the 2016-17 financial year. According to the Ministry of Food, 4.18 MT of rice was imported privately in the last financial year but no rice was imported by the government. However, the government has decided to import rice as a precautionary measure as millers and traders syndicated unreasonable price hikes in August, sources said.
The decision to import rice was taken at a meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee on October 28 through Zoom apps. Minister for Food Sadhan Chandra Majumdar presided over the meeting. Agriculture Minister Md. Abdur Razzak, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Health Minister Zahid Malek, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi, Fisheries and Livestock Minister Sh. M. Rezaul Karim, Finance Secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder, Agriculture Secretary Mesbahul Islam, Food Secretary Moshammat Nazmanara Khanum also attended the meeting.
According to the minutes of the meeting, the government stockpile will be kept at a satisfactory level by the end of this financial year after meeting the government distribution demand, domestic production situation, food security stockpile, current international and local market price of coarse rice and overall food situation.
“It has been decided to import rice only if needed," Food Secretary Moshammat Nazmanara Khanum said.
When asked about the context in which the government has decided to import rice, she said, "There were lots of rainfall this time along with floods. So, Aman production may not be at the desired level."
Even then, if Aman production does not fall, we may import. It takes three months to import. So, the decision to import has already been taken.
She added, "We are trying to break the syndicate of rice rackets. Even then, if a syndicate of millers or traders tries to increase the price of rice, we will try to keep the price of rice within the reach of consumers by importing rice from abroad.”
"We want our farmers to get the price," she said adding we will not import rice privately by reducing tariffs.
The meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee informed about the import situation. In this financial year, till October 28, 216,000 MT of wheat have been officially imported. However, no rice was officially imported during this period. At the same time, only 60 MT of rice and 16,91,000 MT of wheat have been imported privately.
According to the meeting minutes as per budget allocated for food in the current fiscal year, there is a provision to procure 24,55,000 MT of rice from domestic sources and 1,00,000 MT of rice by way of import. Already 5,60,000 MT of rice have been collected during the Boro season.
The Boro procurement target was not met, sources from the Food Ministry said.
The market price of paddy was relatively higher as the paddy / rice procurement target was announced at the beginning of the monsoon season which was two times higher than that of last year. As a result, the farmers got fair price of paddy in the market and were not interested to sell paddy to government silos.
Besides, farmers have been selling paddy at the nearest bazaar as the drying and transportation of the same have been disrupted due to seasonal rains and coronavirus epidemic.
Meanwhile, due to high market prices of paddy, low supply of coarse rice and incessant rain, many husking millers could not deliver rice to government warehouses. In addition, despite their best efforts, a small number of automatic rice millers did not deliver rice as per the agreement as the profit margin was lower than before.
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