Staff Reporter :
The government is going to import 200,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia to ensure food security as the recent floods damaged vast areas of crop fields rising fears of food shortage in the country.
The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase at a meeting on Wednesday approved the proposal of the Food Ministry to import the wheat. Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal chaired the meeting through video conference.
After the meeting, Nasima Begum, Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Division, told the journalists, “Today’s (Wednesday) meeting approved a proposal of the Food Ministry for importing wheat from Russia. The import will be carried out under a government to government (G2G) deal.”
“The government will spend Tk437.56 crore to import 200,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter,” she said.
Bangladesh agriculture sector is producing 38.7 million metric tonnes (MMT) of rice and 1.25 MMT of wheat against its annual demand of 32 MMT of rice and 5.5 MMT of wheat. While our rice production is enough to meet local demand, the additional demand for wheat is usually met through imports.
Sarwar Mahmud, Director General of Directorate General of Food, told the New Nation, “We have no food shortage at all. Instead, we took the decision to import wheat to ensure food security.”
Food Ministry sources said international commercial tender quotation along with G-to-G system will be followed to the planned wheat import. An agreement has already been signed with the Russian state agency “Prodintorg” in this regard.
They said the Russian State Company “Foreign economic corporation Prodintorg” sent a letter on May 18 this year expressing its eagerness to export wheat. Following the letter, a virtual meeting was held between the delegations of the two countries. But the delegations did not finalise the decision due to terms and conditions.
The two delegations again met on last August 4 and reached a consensus to sign an agreement and the decision to import wheat was taken at the meeting, officials said.
They said severe damage to the crop lands due to floods in northeast of Bangladesh had prompted the authority to take the decision.
The government has failed to meet the rice and wheat procurement targets this year as the production was hampered. Rather, the flood affected people had to be supplied with food from the stocks.
To tackle the crisis, the government has decided to import 2.0m tonnes of food grains from different countries.
The government is going to import 200,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia to ensure food security as the recent floods damaged vast areas of crop fields rising fears of food shortage in the country.
The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase at a meeting on Wednesday approved the proposal of the Food Ministry to import the wheat. Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal chaired the meeting through video conference.
After the meeting, Nasima Begum, Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Division, told the journalists, “Today’s (Wednesday) meeting approved a proposal of the Food Ministry for importing wheat from Russia. The import will be carried out under a government to government (G2G) deal.”
“The government will spend Tk437.56 crore to import 200,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter,” she said.
Bangladesh agriculture sector is producing 38.7 million metric tonnes (MMT) of rice and 1.25 MMT of wheat against its annual demand of 32 MMT of rice and 5.5 MMT of wheat. While our rice production is enough to meet local demand, the additional demand for wheat is usually met through imports.
Sarwar Mahmud, Director General of Directorate General of Food, told the New Nation, “We have no food shortage at all. Instead, we took the decision to import wheat to ensure food security.”
Food Ministry sources said international commercial tender quotation along with G-to-G system will be followed to the planned wheat import. An agreement has already been signed with the Russian state agency “Prodintorg” in this regard.
They said the Russian State Company “Foreign economic corporation Prodintorg” sent a letter on May 18 this year expressing its eagerness to export wheat. Following the letter, a virtual meeting was held between the delegations of the two countries. But the delegations did not finalise the decision due to terms and conditions.
The two delegations again met on last August 4 and reached a consensus to sign an agreement and the decision to import wheat was taken at the meeting, officials said.
They said severe damage to the crop lands due to floods in northeast of Bangladesh had prompted the authority to take the decision.
The government has failed to meet the rice and wheat procurement targets this year as the production was hampered. Rather, the flood affected people had to be supplied with food from the stocks.
To tackle the crisis, the government has decided to import 2.0m tonnes of food grains from different countries.
