Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh will import around 4-5 lakh metric tonnes of food grains from India, Russia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
“The ministry concerned has already signed agreements on food import with the above countries. The Prime Minister said that instead of depending only on this, several other sources should be serached as an alternative so that there are no complications at the last moment to import food grains,” the decision was taken at the regular cabinet meeting on Sunday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam told reporters after the meeting at the Secretariat.
There will be no problem to procure food grains from Russia, the Cabinet Secretary said, adding, “We have checked it that no problem exist to procure food grains from Russia. Atap rice will be collected from Myanmar. Besides, agreements are already been signed with Thailand, Vietnam and India to procure rice.”
Referring Food Ministry’s food grain stock, the Cabinet Secretary said that Bangladesh has now stock of about 19.50 lakh tonnes of food grains.
“Recently the price of rice has come down by Tk 4-5 per kg due to introduction of OMS and food friendly programmes. As a result, a major crisis has been removed from the market. Apparently it is giving a good result. The food friendly program will continue for next two months, which may be three to four months. So, we will need about five to six lakh tonnes of food grains within these periods,” Khandker Anwarul Islam said.
He further said that Amon paddy will be available in the market within two to three months, which would help to increase the supply line in the domestic markets along with imported rice.
There will be no shortage of food grains in the country, the Cabinet Secretary said.
According to sources in the Ministry of Food, it held two meetings with the governments of Russia and Vietnam on August 24 where it was decided to import wheat from Russia.
At the same time, the decision to import rice from Vietnam was also finalised.
Earlier, the food ministry had decided to import one lakh tonnes of rice from India.
All imports will be on a government-to-government (G2G) basis.
Before the Russia-Ukraine war, the country’s main sources of wheat imports were India, Canada, Russia and Ukraine. In the fiscal 2020-21, total wheat import cost was worth $1,558 million. Of this, 24 per cent came from India, 23 per cent from Canada, 21 per cent from Russia and 17 per cent from Ukraine. But due to the war in Ukraine and the export embargo, wheat imports from India also stopped as the nation focused on its own food security.
According to the food ministry, unofficial wheat imports were 60 lakh tonnes in 2019-20, and 48.64 lakh tonnes in 2020-21. It is 40lakh, including government imports, in FY22.
