In an effort to further regulate the price of the food grain in the nation’s retail markets, the government has requested that the private sector import 3.27 lakh tonnes of rice within a month.
The government has already granted permission to 59 rice importers to bring in the specified quantity of rice. According to a food ministry directive issued on Tuesday, 2.47 lakh tonnes of the whole amount of rice will be boiled, and 80,000 tonnes will be non-boiled (Atap) rice. “We have approved 59 companies to import 3.27 lakh tonnes of boiled and non-boiled (Atap) rice, aiming to keep price of rice in the retail market stable,” M. Habibur Rahman Hosaini, Additional Secretary (Procurement and Supply) of the Food Ministry, told BSS today.
According to the official, the directive made on Tuesday needs to be implemented right now in order to fill the void in the forthcoming Aman harvest, which should take no more than one and a half months.
According to the directive, the private importers have until December 10 to market the quantities of rice.Instead of repackaging these items with the import companies, the importers must sell the imported rice in sacks directly to consumers.
“The government’s decision on rice import will further lower the price of rice in the market,” stated Nirod Baran Saha, general secretary of the Rice Arotder Samity, in an interview with BSS. Since the price per kilogramme of freshly harvested paddy is currently between Taka 36 and Taka 36.50, even the import will affect the price of the crop.
The public sector had 12,88,513 tonnes of food stored as of Wednesday. The remaining 1,245 tonnes are paddy, 4,39,564 tonnes are wheat, and 8,48,139 tonnes are rice.
