The government is preparing to bring in 650,000 metric tonnes of food grains to enhance the national food reserves and shield against fluctuations in rice and wheat prices. The Advisory Committee on Economic Affairs has greenlighted the Food Ministry’s recommendations. Through government-to-government (G2G) agreements, the ministry will procure 300,000 tonnes of wheat and acquire 300,000 tonnes of rice via international bidding processes.
To streamline the rice imports, a high-level committee has relaxed public procurement regulations, reducing the grain import timeline to 15 days from the usual 42 days. Furthermore, the Advisory Committee on Government Purchases has authorized the import of 50,000 tonnes of non-basmati rice from Aditya Birla Global Trading Pte Ltd., a company based in Singapore, at a rate of $354.19 per tonne.
Between July 1 and November 17 of this year, Bangladesh brought in a total of 2.617 million tonnes of food grains, with 222,000 tonnes procured by the government. As of November 17, the public food reserves contained 1.371 million tonnes, as per data from the food ministry.