Sagar Biswas :
After the Brazilian wheat scandal, the Food Ministry gives birth to a fresh controversy importing about 2.25 lakh tones of wheat from Romania and France by spending huge amount of public money.
There is widespread allegation that the wheat is also ‘inconsumable’ and for that reason the Directorate of Food has been playing dill-dally role to unload the cargo for the last two months.
Official sources said that the French and Romanian wheat was not found up-to-the-mark after conducting joint test by Food Directorate and Chittagong Port Authority [CPA].
The 2.25 lakh tones of wheat are now waiting for clearance containing in five ships in the outer anchorage of Chittagong and Kutubdia. And the government will have to pay additional amount of money for overstaying of ships in the port area, the sources said.
When contacted, Secretary of Food Ministry Musfeka Ikfat told The New Nation last night that the overall procedure of clearing the wheat is facing ‘some difficulties’ due to lack of clearance papers.
“So far I know, the wheat imported from Romani is almost okay. The Directorate of Food has already completed all formalities and the clearing agent has also got permission to unload the consignment. But I don’t know, why they are delaying,” she said. About the wheat of France, the Secretary said, “There are some problems about the wheat imported from France. The primary test report showed that the wheat quality is not good enough for consumption.”
“The Directorate of Food can explain the reason why they are not sending back the wheat to the country of origin,” she said.
Director General of Directorate of Food Fayez Ahmed, however, refrained from making any comment despite repeated attempts yesterday night.
Officials said, this year France has emerged as a key wheat supplier to Bangladesh and a French farm Phoenix Commodities won the deal. The first shipment of 88,000 tonnes of French wheat came to Bangladesh in February.
A fall in the euro and low freight rates helped France to sell feed wheat to Asian buyers, part of its rain-affected 2014 crop that failed to meet the requirements of some bread-wheat importers, the officials said.
In this backdrop, Bangladesh’s state grains buyer Directorate of Food had bought again 50,000 tonnes of French wheat in a tender at $243.69 a tonne, including CIF liner out on mid- April.
Meanwhile, among five wheat carrying ships, the MV Spar Kanis has been waiting at Kutubdia outer anchorage since June 2 with 51, 347 tonnes of wheat, according to information provided by CPA.
Another one MV Jin Yao with 50, 148 tonnes of wheat is waiting in the same area since June 14. The third ship MV Western Texas arrived there with 52,000 tonnes of wheat on June 26.
Besides, MV Pintail arrived Chittagong Port carrying 50, 792 tonnes of wheat on June 30 while MV KP Albatross reached the same area with 52,000 tonnes of wheat on July 9.
But dramatic situation arose when Directorate of Food conducted lab test on the wheat loaded in MV KP Albatross and refused to accept it after proved it low quality.
Not only that, wheat in other ships was also found inconsumable after conducting test by Food Directorate and CPA, the officials said.
