Govt to buy another 50,000 tonnes of rice

The cabinet committee on purchase yesterday approved purchase of another 50,000 tonnes of rice from an Indian supplier.

Bagadiya Brothers Private Ltd will supply the grain to the Directorate of Food at US$ 416 per tonne, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said after a virtual meeting. In taka terms, the import price of rice would be Tk 35.28 each kilogram.

The government has so far taken steps to import a total of 11 lakh tonnes of rice through international tenders and government to government contract.

The food ministry took steps to buy 4 lakh tonnes of rice through private suppliers and 7 lakh tonnes via state-to-state contract.

Of that, the government has signed a contract to buy 3.5 lakh tonnes through government to government arrangements, said an official of the food ministry.

Besides, the food ministry granted private traders to import 15 lakh tonnes of grains— in a move taken at the beginning of this year in its bid to increase the supply of the staple food in the domestic market to curb spiralling prices.

Previously, the food office started floating tender to buy the cereal to replenish public food stock as it failed to buy enough quantity of rice from Boro and Aman harvests last year.

Rice and wheat stocks at public storages dipped more than times to 4.88 lakh tonnes on March 28 from 16.51 lakh tonnes a year ago, data by the food ministry shows.

To expedite these imports, the economic affairs committee on March 3 approved a proposal for shortening the bidding process from 42 days to 10.

Earlier, Bangladesh imported 6.84 lakh tonnes of rice between July 1 and March 28 this fiscal year. Of that, the government imported 1.95 lakh tonnes, according to food ministry data.

GOVERNMENT PURCHASES FROM THE DOMESTIC MARKET

The government failed to attain its goal of building adequate public food stock last year owing to the reluctance of farmers and millers to sell as prices of the cereal were increasing amid worries of low-yield for repeated floods and uncertainty surrounding Covid-19 pandemic.

The Directorate of Food concluded its domestic procurement target for Aman on March 15 this year. It could buy only 6 per cent of its 2 lakh tonnes of paddy purchase target from immediate Aman season.

Of milled-rice buying target of 6 lakh tonnes during Aman harvest, Directorate of Food could attain 13 per cent of its goal.

The procurement drive from Boro closed in mid-September 2020 and the food office bought less than one-third of its 8 lakh tonnes of Boro paddy buying goal.

In case of the target of buying 11.5 lakh tonnes of milled-rice during the previous Boro season, it achieved 66 per cent of the goal, data by Food ministry shows.