In the wake of the stock of cereals in government godowns and silos being halved, Bangladesh is planning to import 50,000 tonnes of rice from India at a cost of Tk 176.36 crore.
The country’s rice import from January to March reached 1 lakh 343 tonnes as the country failed to collect a sufficient amount of rice from domestic sources.
In the first three months of the year, wheat import also recorded 2 lakh 67 thousand and 446 tonnes and the lion share of the cereals was imported via railway from India.
In January, 11.678 thousand tonnes of rice were imported from India while it was 20.950 thousand tonnes in February and 68 thousand 715 tonnes in March as rice and wheat storage in public warehouse plummeted to 3.72 lakh metric tonnes and 1.10 lakh metric tonnes respectively.
Bangladesh went after rice import in the face of failure to collect expected rice and paddy from internal sources as the food ministry managed to collect only 51 thousand tonnes of paddy and 2.25 lakh tonnes of rice against the primary target of 10 lakh tonnes of paddy and 11 lakh tonnes of rice in last year’s Boro season.
COVID-19 also cast a deep shadow on Bangladesh’s foodgrain stocks as millers were storing rice and paddy, sensing the looming scarcity of rice and paddy.
Earlier, flash flood submerged a vast swath of land in Bangladesh, leaving the paddy field and croplands severely damaged.
According to a tally of the food ministry, food grain stock came down to 4.88 lakh tonnes as of March 28 — quite below the half mark of the minimum operational-cum-strategic reserve requirement of 10 lakh tonnes which prompted the food ministry to import rice and wheat from India, Russia, Argentina, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
Amid the plummeting trend of cereal stock in food godowns and silos, the government is likely to import another 50,000 tonnes of rice at a cost of Tk 176.36 crore from India and a proposal from the food ministry is expected before the cabinet committee on public purchase this week.
Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder told The Business Post, “We have kept every option open to maintain food the stock of the country and possible imports from several countries are on the cards.”
“A proposal is ready to import 50,000 tonnes of rice from India which will be placed at the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase by next week,” he added.
The government has already imported 2.06 lakh tonnes of rice and another 6.50 lakh tonnes of rice are in the pipeline under the government-to-government-level deal.
Bangladesh will import 6.1 million tonnes of wheat in 2020-21 which is 3.8 per cent higher than the last two years.
According to the data of the US Department of Agriculture, Bangladesh ranked third with a production of 3.6 crore tonnes of rice globally and China and India secured the first and the second spot with the rice production of 14.6 crore tonnes and 11.6 crore tonnes respectively.
