Govt plans to export surplus rice

The government plans to export rice to boost prices for growers, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said yesterday.
“No final decision has been made, but we are genuinely exploring the option of rice exports,” Muhith said at a press briefing after a ministerial meeting on food at his secretariat office.
“In our new estimates, the rice production looks sufficient for the domestic market,” Muhith said.
“The market price of rice is very low at the moment, and I doubt the farmers can recoup their cost of production at that rate.”
At present, the average retail price of coarse rice is Tk 25 a kg, while the production cost per kg is said to be Tk 26.50, he said.
The government stock currently stands at 1.3 million tonnes -- 488,000 tonnes of which have so far been acquired since the last boro harvesting season -- and it intends to continue with the procurement, at Tk 28 a kg, until September.
Part of the reason for rice export is space constraint in public warehouses. The available space in government-owned warehouses can house 350,000 tonnes of rice, but the capacity is expected to increase once the government embarks on the VGF (vulnerable group feeding) programme ahead of Eid, the minister said.
“The rice stock is getting stale. We need to think of ways to offload it from the warehouses,” Muhith added.
The idea of rice exports is not alien: in 1981 the government exported 10,000 tonnes of rice, he said.
The total rice output recorded by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics for fiscal 2011-12 was 33.73 million tonnes, nearly 1 percent rise from the previous fiscal year's 33.54 million tonnes.
Muhith also proposed making aromatic rice a regular export product, such that it can be exported all year round, as its price is higher in the world market.
“We export aromatic rice now, but only at certain times,” said the finance minister.
Furthermore, the government wants to decrease the price of rice for open market sale programme, fair price cards and rationing, as customers are reluctant to purchase, given the quality, at that price, Muhith said.
But the minister did not give specifics of the rice export programme and the time frame within which the prices of OMS, fair price rice and rationing rice will be reduced.
The minister also touched upon the subject of the country's troubled poultry sector in the press briefing.
“We have grasped the gravity of the damages caused by the avian influenza after meeting with the sector leaders and the relevant ministry. We are now working towards reviving the sector,” he said.
Two Bangladeshi companies under the department of health are currently working, in Gazipur, on a trial for avian influenza vaccine.
He urged the Bangladeshi pharmaceutical companies to produce international standard vaccines so that the country does not need to import them.