Govt to get 150,000 tonnes of rice from India
The government is set to get 150,000 tonnes of rice from India under a state-to-state contract in order to resupply the general public food stocks following scant procurement from the existing Aman harvest season, according to a senior official of the meals ministry.
"We will soon signal a deal in this respect," said Foodstuff Secretary Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum, adding that the agreed minutes had been finalised on December 23.
The purchase follows a tender from the Directorate of Foodstuff for 250,000 tonnes of rice and 50,000 tonnes of wheat from international sources.
Citing the Countrywide Agricultural Cooperative Advertising Federation of India, Reuters said that the state organization is finalising the arrangement, which will be the first bilateral package of its kind in 3 years after repeated flooding in the country sent local rates to a record high.
This development comes as the government is moving fast to replenish the country's depleting public food stocks and tame the soaring price of rice in local markets.
Food grain stocks in public warehouses slumped 46 % to 7.46 lakh tonnes by December 23, down from 13.86 lakh tonnes on the same day a year ago, based on the food ministry. The retail selling price of coarse rice rose by 13 per cent to Tk 46-50 per kilogramme as of yesterday compared to its value from per month ago, data from the Trading Company of Bangladesh shows.
Until December 23, the Directorate of Food could procure just 306 tonnes of paddy and 13,567 tonnes of rice from regional farmers and millers after beginning procurement from the existing Aman paddy harvest.
The amount of paddy and rice purchased was a minimum of 1 % of the targets of 200,000 tonnes of paddy and 500,000 tonnes of rice for the growing season, data from the food ministry shows.
