1.11 lakh tonnes of rice imported from India up to now
The federal government and businesses imported 1.11 lakh tonnes of rice from India over the last one month because the food ministry began giving permission to individual traders to deliver the grain so that you can curb the spiralling of rates locally.
Of the total amount, businesses brought 56,390 tonnes of rice as the Directorate of Food imported 55,130 tonnes of the staple, said the meals ministry in a statement yesterday.
The food ministry's disclosure came after it granted permission to 320 organizations to import 10.14 lakh tonnes since January 3 aside from buying through the meals office to replenish public food stocks.
Food stock on the express godowns slumped 59 % year-on-yr to 6.75 lakh tonnes on February 1, down from 16.28 lakh tonnes the prior year as the food office didn't lure growers and millers to provide the grain at its announced prices in the upward market.
Until February 1, the Directorate of Food could get 7,390 tonnes of paddy which is 4 % of its aim for to buy 2 lakh tonnes of the unhusked rice through the immediate Aman harvesting season.
Of the 6 lakh tonnes of milled rice purchase target, it might attain 9 per cent or 56,280 tonnes because it started procuring the foodgrain from November 7 as almost all of the millers refused to provide supplies at the government fixed fee of Tk 36 per kilogramme on grounds that that they had to buy the paddy at higher prices.
Rice rates dropped marginally during the last three weeks. Yet, rates of coarse grains remained 35 % higher from Tk 32-35 per kilogramme in the same period this past year, data by the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh showed.
The food ministry said it started selling rice through several cellular trucks at subsidised rates in Dhaka city since February 1.
