The government is going to import 150,000 tonnes of food grain before end of the current fiscal as the country’s food reserve depleted after a poor Aman harvest.
Earlier, it was decided to import over 200,000 tonses of food grain at the end of the fiscal and of the amount, 50,000 tonnes of wheat was imported last month.
Proposal to import another 50,000 tonnes has already been sent to the cabinet committee on purchase for approval, said a senior food ministry official. It will be placed before the committee tomorrow.
The country’s food reserve now dropped to less than 900,000 tonnes. “But this is not to worry about as boro harvest to hit the country’s food warehouse. We hope the next boro harvest will swell the reserve again,” said Ahmed Hossain Khan, director general of Food Directorate.
The boro harvest meets half the annual food demand of the country.
Ahmed Hossain said since the prices of local wheat have gone up, the government will procure the grain from international market at lower prices.
On May 8 this year, the food reserve came down to 890,000 tonnes. Of the reserve, 680,000 tonnes were rice and the remaining 210,000 tonnes were wheat.
During the current fiscal, the government procured 200,000 tonnes of Aman rice and 11,647 tonnes of wheat.
On May 9, the wheat reserve stood at 86,926 tonnes, showed the food ministry data.
Usually, the government keeps 1.5m tonnes of food grain to respond to any emergency situation.
Meanwhile, M/S Amira Pure Food became the lowest bidder in tender to import 50,000 tonnes of wheat. The wheat will cost $31,375 a tonne.
Besides, the government, in last month, imported 50,000 tonnes of wheat.
In March, the government decided to procure 900,000 tonnes of boro rice, 150,000 tonnes of paddy and 150,000 tonneo wheat to cover the current year at increased prices compared to previous year.
According to food ministry’s records, Bangladesh saw its food grain reserve rose to 1.58m tonnes, the highest in decade, on November 1, 2011.
In May last year, the food stock was 1.2m tonnes. In the beginning of 2009 when the present assumed office, the country had a food stock of 1.26m tonnes.