As the government scrambles to shore up depleting supplies amid skyrocketing costs for the basic crop, Bangladesh will purchase 200,000 tonnes of white rice from Myanmar, setting aside the disagreement over the Rohingya refugee crisis.
According to two officials with direct knowledge of the situation, the government-to-government agreement is priced at $465.50 per tonne, including cost, insurance, and freight (CIF) liner out basis.
One of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the agreement had not yet been made public, stated that “the transaction would be signed soon and the rice will be delivered within two months.”
Muslim-majority Bangladesh and mostly Buddhist Myanmar have been at odds over the more than 1 million Muslim Rohingya refugees in camps in southern Bangladesh. The vast majority of them fled from Myanmar in 2017 to escape a military-led crackdown that UN investigators said was executed with “genocidal intent” – which Myanmar denies.
Bangladesh is also buying a total of 330,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam and India.Read full story
The authorities added that although the government planned to buy 1 million tonnes of rice from India, it was also attempting to import rice from Thailand.
In an effort to reduce the high domestic prices, the government increased sales of rice at lower prices to millions of low-income families this month.
Ismiel Hossain, secretary of the ministry of food, stated that “we are making all attempts” to import rice in order to increase reserves and down domestic costs.
In an effort to increase private imports, Bangladesh this week reduced the import duty on rice from 25% to 15% for the second time since July. Earlier, the import tariff was set at 62.5 percent.
Some 246,000 tonnes have been purchased under a private rice import scheme introduced by the government in July, when it said private traders could import nearly 1 million tonnes. The scheme got off to a slow start, but purchases gathered momentum in late August.
Bangladesh, traditionally the third-biggest rice producer in the world, often imports to manage shortages caused by natural disasters.
