Govt mulling exporting rice to India: PM
Prime Minister and Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina today said the government is considering exporting rice to India as the latter has expressed its interest in importing rice from Bangladesh.
"India has expressed its interest in importing 20,000-30,000 MT rice from Bangladesh and the issue of exporting rice in future would be considered by reviewing the food security situation," she said.
Replying to a question from independent lawmaker Md Rustam Ali Farazi in the House, Sheikh Hasina said 25,000 MT rice have already been exported to Sri Lanka after the present government took a decision to export rice to the island state.
"Bangladesh has been able to export rice to Sri Lanka because of pragmatic steps of the Awami League government... it is a remarkable success of the Awami League government," she said.
Terming Awami League government as an agriculture-friendly one, Sheikh Hasina said the country's farmers produce crops through their hard labour.
"We have been able to overcome food deficit thanks to our agri-friendly programmes meaning coordinated and time-befitting steps," she said.
The Prime Minister said total demand for rice and wheat in the country is now about 2.95 crore metric tons. Of the food grains, she said, the demand of rice is nearly 2.68 crore MT and the wheat is about 27 lakh MT.
Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh produced 2.83 crore MT food grains in 2008 and the country had to import over 34.66 lakh MT food grains in that year.
"It is being expected that a total of 3.87 crore MT food grains would be produced in the current fiscal due to undertaking and implementation of far-sighted agri and agriculture-friendly policy," she said.
Mentioning that the demand for food grains in the country this year is 2.95 crore MT, the Prime Minister hoped that there would be surplus food grains in the country for export.
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