DHAKA, April 2, 2018 (BSS) – The government has a plan to import 11 lakh metric tonnes more foodgrains in the next 2018-19 fiscal, said the top food official here today.
“We are ready to import 7 lakh metric tonnes rice and 4 lakh metric tonnes wheat from abroad in 2018-19 fiscal considering the food demand of the country,” said Director General of the Department of Food Mohammad Badrul Hasan.
About food import, the food official said although the country has huge food stock and the boro procurement is approaching which would begin within couple of months, so the country has no requirement of foodgrain import shortly.
But the government has set a provision to import 11 lakh metric tonnes food grain in the next fiscal year if the standing crops damaged by any other natural catastrophe, the official added.
Meanwhile, the government has already been imported nearly 10 lakh metric tonnes foodgrain in the current fiscal year.
Rice import by the country substantially rose in 2017-18 fiscal amid crop losses, mainly boro paddy, in the flash floods in the country’s north-eastern haor areas and depleting public stocks as well as rising prices of staple in the domestic market.
The government so far has imported around 1.08 million tonnes rice and paddy from Vietnam, Myanmar, India, Thailand, Cambodia and Russia through G2G and international bidding process in 2017-18 fiscal, he said.
Of thee imported food grains, a total of 818,000 tonnes rice and wheat have already been unloaded at the port and the rest 268,000 tonnes is in way of unloading process, he added.
The current food grain stock is 9.70lakh tonnes rice and 3.62 lakh tonnes wheat in the food godowns.