Ship with 26,250 tonnes of rice from Pakistan arrives at Ctg port

A bulk ship carrying the first consignment of rice imported from Pakistan under a government-to-government deal has arrived at Chattogram port early today.

This is the first ever shipment of rice from Pakistan after the Liberation War.

MV SIBI, carrying 26250 tonnes of atap rice, arrived at the outer anchorage of the port around 2:00am while it berthed at the jetty no. 1 of Chittagong Container Terminal (CCT) around 4:00pm, according to the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA).

The ship left the Port of Qasim in Karachi last week.

The consignment is the first phase of the purchase of 50 thousand tonnes of atap rice under a Memorandum of Understating (MoU) signed between the Directorate of Food, Bangladesh and Trading Corporation of Pakistan in January, said Gnana Priya Bidurshi Chakma, controller of movement and storage, Chattogram.

The rice was priced at $499 per tonnes as per the agreement, he informed.

Authorities have collected samples of the import and will send it to the Regional Food Testing Laboratory in Halishahar in Chattogram for quality tests, Bidurshi said.

After getting the test result, they would start unloading the cargo, he added.

Another ship carrying the second consignment of the purchase would arrive on March 10.

Md Abul Hasanath Humayun Kabir, director general of the Directorate of Food, will arrive at the port tomorrow to inspect the unloading.