Dhaka offered Tk36 per kg for 50,000 tonnes of rice

The lowest offer in the tender from Bangladesh's state grains buyer to purchase 50,000 tonnes of parboiled rice was $445.11 a tone (Tk36/kg approx) cost, insurance and freight (CIF) liner out, officials in Bangladesh and European traders said on Monday. The offer was made by global trading house Olam. The tender had closed on June 11 and the rice is to be shipped within 40 days of contract signing.

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No purchase has yet been made and offers are still being considered, European traders added. They said the other offers in the tender in dollars a tonne CIF liner out were- Agro Corp at $449.55, Singsong Food at $458.00, Desh Trading at $459.67, Amir Chand at $474.00 and Sukhbir Agro at $459.30.

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Bangladesh has started a new programme to import rice to build reserves and cool local prices after sudden floods damaged local crops. Domestic rice prices reached record highs in May and state reserves are at six-year lows in the wake of the flooding that wiped out around 700,000 tonnes of Bangladesh's rice crops. Farmers in Natore's Chalan Beel harvest unripe paddy after a flood Dhaka TribuneThe state grains buyer said it would import 600,000 tonnes of rice after the flooding, initially issuing two tenders for a total of 100,000 tonnes of rice, its first such tenders since 2011. Vietnamese rice prices in May hit their highest in over a year on expectations of strong demand from top importing countries such as Bangladesh and the Philippines.

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Bangladesh wants to buy around 250,000 to 300,000 tonnes of Vietnam's 5% white rice immediately and plans to increase rice imports from Vietnam to 500,000 tonnes by end of 2017, Vietnam's trade ministry said. Traders and officials say Bangladesh could emerge as a major importer of rice this year. It was ranked as the fourth-largest importer of the grain by the US Department of Agriculture in 2011.

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Since then, the Bangladesh government has not imported rice although private traders have done, mostly from India. Bangladesh produces around 34m tonnes of rice annually but uses almost all its production to feed its population of 160m. It often requires imports to cope with shortages caused by natural calamities such as floods and droughts.