Rice bran oil eyes market

A new avenue is set to open up on the edible oil market as Rashid Oil Mills Ltd has moved to extract oil from rice bran. Company officials expect that the product will attract a wide spectrum of consumers.
The company said it set up a plant in Baharpur area of Ishwardi in Pabna by investing about Tk 20 crore.
The new entrant with a daily capacity of producing between 60-84 tonnes oil from the extraction of about 300 tonnes of rice bran, is expected to supply between 18,000-25,200 tonnes of rice bran oil a year to market.
“We have been inspired by the popularity of rice bran oil in India. It's a vegetable oil and has various health benefits,” said Abdur Rashid, managing director of Rashid Oil, a concern of Rashid Group, known for marketing fine rice such as miniket in bulk quantity.
Rice bran oil is the oil extracted from the germ and inner husk of rice. It is suitable for high-temperature cooking methods such as stir frying and deep-frying. It is popular as cooking oil in several Asian countries, including Japan and China.
Traditionally, potato chips, rice crackers, and even French fries have been fried in rice bran oil in parts of Asia. In the US, rice bran oil is currently being used in upscale snack food production and restaurants.
Rashid Oil attempts to make rice bran oil at a time when Bangladesh consumes about 13 lakh tonnes of edible oil a year -- mostly imported by private refiners.
In Bangladesh, rice bran is used mainly for preparing feed for poultry, fish and cattle. Rashid got the idea of producing oil from rice bran after he had witnessed demand from Indian buyers for bran produced in his rice mill.
He said his rice mill would meet part of the raw materials supply required for oil production. The rest of the supply will come from local market.
Rashid said rice barn oil could be used in foodstuffs. “It's a cholesterol-free oil."
“We expect to put our rice bran oil up for sale by August next year. The prices of our rice bran oil will be almost equal to the prices of soybean oil."
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