The government on Wednesday inked a deal with Sri Lanka for exporting 25,000 tonnes of coarse rice at a price of US$ 450 per tonne to the South Asian nation in its first ever move to sell the staple food grain abroad. The directorate general of the directorate of food, Sarwar Khan, and chairman of Lanka Sathosa Ltd, Nalin Fernando, signed the agreement on behalf of the respective governments at the secretariat in Dhaka.
Minister for food Md Qamrul Islam and the director general of the department of development finance under the ministry of finance and planning of Sri Lanka, AMPMB Atapattu, witnessed the signing ceremony.
Qamrul said that it was a proud moment for Bangladesh that it has now turned into a rice exporting country.
‘Bangladesh is no more a food-deficit country. We have now the capacity to export at least one lakh tonnes of rice with 12 lakh tonnes of food grains in the country’s buffer stock,’ the minister told a press briefing after signing the deal.
He said the government had agreed to export 50,000 tonnes of rice to Sri Lanka at a price of US$ 450 for each tonne.
The cabinet of Sheikh Hasina earlier approved a proposal for the export of rice to Sri Lanka.
‘Initially, they are importing 25,000 tonnes from Bangladesh as it is raining unexpectedly in Sri Lanka. They will take the rest at a convenient time later,’ Qamrul added.
The government’s decision to export rice was prompted by its keenness to end the stigma attached to Bangladesh as a food grain deficit country dependent of rice imports, said officials, adding that the government had agreed to export rice to Sri Lanka to brighten the nation’s image abroad.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Bank records showed that letters of credit worth US$ 25.27 million had been opened until July for rice imports from the international market.
Bangladesh imported rice worth US$ 1.4 billion between fiscal 2008-09 and 2012-13.
In fiscal 2010-11, the country had to bear the highest import bill of US$ 830 million.
Experts, however, said that the rice export proposition was not viable taking into the consideration the subsidies the nation pays to grow rice for its domestic consumption.
-With New Age input
