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Import from India, Myanmar in pipeline: Rice market to stabilise soon
February 9, 2008: (The New Nation) The domestic rice market is expected to become stable within a short time as the Government and the private traders have taken hectic moves for importing the essential from India and Myanmar.
Some 9,62,470 tonnes of rice were
imported through Benapole, Bhomra and Darshana land-ports in the last 7 months
of the current fiscal year, sources concerned said.
Rice traders are also importing 180,000 tonnes of white rice from neighbouring Myanmar. Some
30,000 tonnes of rice has already been shipped to Chittagong port and the rest will reach the
country by early March, they informed.
Benapole customs sources said that importers brought some 9,62,470 tonnes of
rice into Bangladesh
since July 2007 till January 3, 2008. Rice traders imported some 2,16,622
tonnes of rice in January 2008 and 6,713 tonnes of rice were imported in the
first three days of February this year.
The first consignment of rice from India,
in a state-to-state deal, is expected to reach here by next week after New Delhi agreed to
supply the commodity at the rate of US$ 399 per tonne.
The cargo will start reaching Bangladesh
by the end of the month after the final approval of the decision by the two
governments, officials in Dhaka said on
Thursday. The shipment is expected to be completed by late March.
Bangladesh
and Indian officials fixed the price after four days of talks in Kolkata on
Wednesday. Bangladesh will
import 500,000 tonnes of non-basmati pre-boiled rice from India in a
state-to-state deal.
"India's
West Bengal Essential Commodities Supply Corporation Limited will supply a
total 500,000 tonnes of non-basmati pre-boiled rice with average price at $399
per tonne," Food Secretary Mohammad Ayub Miah told newsmen.
Dhaka would take steps to import rice through
rail, road and river ways after it received the necessary papers from Indian
authorities, he added.
India had recently lifted a
ban on export of rice up to 5.5 lakh tonnes to Bangladesh following the attack of
Cyclone Sidr that ravaged the country's coastlines last year.
The cyclone and two spells of flooding in July-September destroyed nearly 2.0
million tonnes of rice in the fields, according to official estimates. The
Government would import one million tonnes of rice to cover the loss.
Inflation rate of food items in urban areas reached 15.77 per cent and 13.91
per cent in rural areas on point-to-point basis in December last year shooting
up further the prices of essentials, especially rice and flour, Bangladesh
Bureau of Statistics says.