In the wake of rising demand for rice in the country, the government is importing huge amount of this staple food. Till last week, the government has given approval to import a total of 900000 lakh tonnes of rice.
Sources said that as the government’s stock of rice and wheat is decreasing abnormally, prices have risen in the market. However, imports are going on at public-private level to increase stocks.
The government has given in-principle approval to the decision of importing 3.5 lakh metric tons of rice from India, Thailand and Vietnam on G-to-G (direct purchase from the government) system for state emergencies. The government has decided to ensure adequate stocks so that there is no rice crisis in the country ahead of Ramadan.
The approval was given at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on March 10. With this, approval has been given to import 900000 tonnes of rice in the last one week. Earlier, on March 3, approval was given to import 5.5 lakh tonnes of rice.
According to the Ministry of Food, the government now has only 98,000 tonnes of wheat in stock, about a quarter more than the stock in the same period last year. At the beginning of March last year, there were 336,000 tonnes of wheat in the government's warehouses. In such a situation, the price of flour has also gone up in the market.
According to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), the price of flour in the market has increased by 11 percent in one year. Besides, the price of flour has increased by 4.5 percent.
The current stock of wheat is not enough for the government as it requires four lakh tonnes of wheat for various financial and relief activities every year. Distribution becomes less when stocks are low, which creates additional stress on rice consumption. In addition, since the government's total food grain stocks include rice and wheat, wheat stocks also need to be adequate.
Concerned people said that the demand for wheat is increasing rapidly in the country as about 75 lakh tonnes of wheat is required annually now. Of this, 12 lakh to 13 lakh tonnes of wheat are produced in the country.
In the past, the government imported up to 500,000 tonnes of wheat a year. The rest is supplied by the private sector through imports from different countries. On an average 60 lakh tonnes of wheat need to be imported every year.
