The stock of rice and wheat in government warehouses has declined by about 250,000 tonnes compared to the stock enjoyed in the corresponding period last year.
As of July 9 the government had around 990,000 tonnes of food grains stored. This included 758,000 tonnes of rice and 240,000 tonnes of wheat.
In the corresponding period last year the food reserve stood at 1.245m tonnes. This figure included 998,000 tonnes of rice and 246,000 tonnes of wheat.
“The reserve has declined as the government has failed to procure an adequate amount of rice from the internal market in a timely manner,” said Md Assaduzzaman, former research director of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).
Meanwhile, the government has procured only 363,000 tonnes of Boro rice this year from the internal market, though it declared that it would procure 1m tonnes.
The Boro harvest ended about a month ago and the government started its procurement on May 2.
The BIDS research director assumed that the government would not be able to reach its target of procuring the estimated 1m tonnes of rice this year as the time was almost over and there was a shortage of Boro paddy in the local market now.
“The shortage will certainly push the price of coarse rice higher during the lean season that usually starts in the month of September,” Asaduzzaman noted.
The prices of coarse rice in both wholesale and retail markets have already risen in the last month, according to the food ministry.
Md Badrul Hassan, director (procurement) of the Food Directorate, said they hoped they could procure an adequate amount of Boro rice from the internal market by September.
Due to the incessant rainfall in the country during the last month, he said, the government could not procure rice from the local market as per its expectation.
However, he is a bit concerned about whether they can buy the declared amount of rice from the local market as the level of production is much less this year.
Explaining the reason behind less production of rice, he said a large number of farmers had shifted their cultivation from Boro to wheat, maize and oil seeds as they had not been getting a fair price for their products in the last two years.
Around 150,000 hectares of Boro cultivation land are now being used to grow other cash crops like wheat, maize and oil seeds, said Assaduzzaman.
About the further possibility of price hike and food shortage Badrul Hassan said in case of emergency, the government would procure rice from the international market.
The government has allocated a fund for importing 250,000 tonnes of food grains in the budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year.
It has also signed a memorandum of understanding with Vietnam to import rice on an emergency basis within 15 days, Badrul added.