Wheat ship diverted from Ctg to Mongla port
A cargo ship reached the Mongla port Wednesday to offload around 12,000MT (metric ton) of wheat after it was diverted from Chittagong.
The government made the move to ride out the shortage of foodgrains in its granaries in Barisal division, said sources.
Food officials hope the shipment of 12,000MT wheat out of over 30,000MT in foreign food aid would offset the shortage of stocks in six districts of Barisal division until the vacuum is filled by the ongoing aman procurement drive.
Our correspondent in Barisal reported that the food officials wrote to the food directorate earlier last month, seeking a fresh supply of foodgrains for 72 local supply depots (LSDs) and one central supply depot (CSD) in the division.
Until last week, the warehouses with a storing capacity of over one lakh MT had a reserve of around 35,000MT.
But they had a stock of 72,150MT at this time the year before, as the official statistics show.
The sources said the low foodgrains reserve in Barisal might threaten food security of the southern and coastal regions in case of any natural calamity.
Food officials in Dhaka, however, said the overall stock position in Barisal would improve thanks to a fresh intake of government-procured aman and foreign food aid. The national food reserve will increase too, they hope.
But this year, the government started the aman procurement drive on January 1 -- about one month behind schedule.
The officials put the current low reserve down to a massive release of rice from the public granaries under the state-run OMS (open market sale) programme late last year.
After release of three and a half lakh MT of rice from the silos under programme, the government has now hardly six lakh MT.
Responding to the request of the Barisal food officials, the government diverted the ship carrying over 30,000MT of foodgrains to unload 12,000MT at Mongla and the rest at the Chittagong port, said an official.
"We have recently introduced the 40-60 per cent foodgrains offload system under which we will release 60 per cent to the Chittagong port and 40 per cent to the Mongla port. It is more cost-effective than trucking food from Chittagong to the southern region," the official explained.
Our Barisal correspondent added that 22 warehouses out of 73 in Barisal, with a storing capacity of 22,000MT, did not get any foodgrains.
The food officials in Dhaka admitted to it. But they said many warehouses are no longer used to stockpile food, as there were other warehouses in some command areas.
Besides, some warehouses were built in a hurry in the late 1970s without considering accessibility and transportation facilities.
The government now plans to sell out some of the warehouses, the sources added.
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