Govt slows rice import as grain in steady supply

A shopkeeper sells rice at Karwan Bazar. Photo: Amran Hossain

The government now takes a go-slow stance on rice import because of a favourable stock at home and good response from the millers to supply the grain, a food directorate official said yesterday.
''We are not considering large-scale rice import now,'' said Ahmed Hossain Khan, director general of Directorate of Food.
Khan's comment came as rice price rises on the international market, buoyed by Thailand's new government's plan to implement an election promise to buy paddy rice from farmers at 15,000 baht ($503.35) per tonne during the next harvest starting in November.
This could push up the export price of Thai white rice (5 percent broken) to about $800 a tonne from around $550 now, said a Bangkok Post report yesterday. Thai rice is the benchmark for Asia.
The Thai government's pledge to pay its farmers higher prices also leads to a rise in rice export price in Vietnam as its millers and growers held back stocks, taking the cues from their Thai counterparts.
Khan, however, said the plan to go slow on buying from the international market is not because of a hike in Thailand's export price.
''It's mainly because of good domestic procurement and stocks,'' he said.
Already, supplies from local mills reached 4.60 lakh tonnes with contracts to deliver two lakh tonnes more being signed, exceeding the target of buying six lakh tonnes from the domestic market after the harvest of boro, said Khan.
Also the department received shipment of two lakh tonnes of rice, pushing the overall stock of food grain at the government hold at 13.5 lakh tonnes, including 10 lakh tonnes of rice, said food officials.
In early July, the public food grain stocks stood at 8.82 lakh tonnes, including 5.70 lakh tonnes of rice, according to food department data.
Khan also said the spike in prices of rice on the international market will not fuel prices on the domestic market because the government has higher stocks.
''Domestic production has also been good,'' he said.
In the last one month, the prices of rice have been stable, but remained higher than in the previous year.
Boro output rose 1.63 percent to record 1.86 crore tonnes in the immediate harvest, boosting the total rice production to 3.35 crore tonnes in the last three crop seasons from 3.22 crore tonnes the previous three seasons, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
A record volume of imports of rice and wheat in the last fiscal year also provides space that supply will increase because of the carry-over stocks.
And unless adverse weather hurts the current aman, the second largest crop, import demand of rice will be minimal.
Earlier, the government cut its rice import target to eight lakh tonnes in the current fiscal year from its actual import of nearly 13 lakh tonnes during fiscal 2010-11, said food department officials.

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