Wheat imported from Brazil, reportedly rotten and insect infected has been rejected by the consumers in Barisal.
Amzad Hossain, Barisal regional controller of food department, said government imported two lakh metric tonnes of wheat from Brazil for implementation of TCB’s Open Market Sale (OMS) programme during Ramadan and Test Relief Project and distributed to many areas including Barisal.
He said 35,000 metric tonnes of wheat had been supplied to different districts of Barisal division.
At present total 14,998 metric tonnes of that wheat, locally known as ‘Zira-Gaam’ due to its small and thin shape, lying at different godowns of food department.
After starting distribution, OMS dealers and TR recipients had to face heavy reaction from the consumers due to bad smell and infection of insects in the corn.
“We stopped to take those wheat from food department,” said Sohel Rana, an OMS dealer.
Zaman Hossain, a rice mill owner of Bhola, said he had stopped taking the substandard imported wheat as sufficient flower could not be got from it.
Rashida Begum, a construction worker of Barisal city, said that she had to destroy two kilograms of flower collected from OMS in the area due to bad smell and substandard quality like animal feeder.