Food Minister Abdur Razzaque yesterday defended import of rice at high prices, saying ensuring food availability is the government's top priority, especially when rice prices are high in the domestic market.
Bangladesh imported 2,00,000 tonnes of non-parboil rice at $545 a tonne and 50,000 tonnes of parboil rice at $550 per tonne from Vietnam after signing contracts in December.
On February 4, the government also signed contracts to import 2,00,000 tonnes of rice at $580 per tonne from Thailand and then decided importing 1,00,000 tonne of parboil rice from Vietnam at $575 per tonne.
"When we signed the contracts with respective governments, our prices were in line with the international market's, but we had to buy it considering our domestic demand," Food Minister Razzaque told reporters at a press briefing at the ministry.
He held the briefing following a report run by the daily Prothom Alo yesterday that said the government was importing rice at $580 and $575 per tonne when private importers are importing it from Vietnam between $420 and $430 per tonne.
The minister said with the beginning of the harvest in early February, rice prices of exporting countries started coming down. As of April 4, the price of parboil rice in the international market declined by $40.
Referring to the newspaper report that a Thai rice supplier, which was accused of corruption earlier, was supplying rice to Bangladesh and that it was an indication of corruption, the food minister said Bangladesh has been importing rice from Thailand and Vietnam with state-level arrangements.