The government has failed to achieve the procurement target of Boro rice within the stipulated time because of a huge difference in the price between local market and the government’s fixed price.
Despite the time of purchasing Boro rice was extended for a month, the officials of the Directorate General of Food expressed their concern over achieving the target.
The Food Planning and Monitoring Committee (FPMC) under the Food Ministry on March 20 this year set up the target of procuring 10 lakh tonnes of Boro rice and 1.5 lakh tonnes of Boro paddy from local markets.
The procurement drive started on May 1 this year and the drive was supposed to end August 31. As the Food Ministry could not achieve its target within the fixed time frame, the government extended the time to September 30.
The price of procuring rice was set at Tk31 per kg while paddy price was
Tk20 per kg. The price was fixed following the calculation of the agriculture ministry which said production cost of per kg paddy was Tk17.50 while the same amount of rice cost Tk26.50.
The ministry could buy only 835,525 tonnes of rice and 9,823 tonnes of paddy from local markets.
The paddy was bought from the local farmers directly while the rice was supplied by 15,062 enlisted rice mill owners across the country. Of them, 14,444 rice mill owners supplied boiled rice and rest of the owners supplied non-boiled rice to the food department.
According to the directorate, around 774,622 tonnes boiled rice was bought during the period while 60,903 tonnes non-boiled rice was procured. It was 78% of the target.
Former director general of the DG Food Ahammad Hossain Khan, who was made officer on special duty last week, told the Dhaka Tribune that they had failed to achieve the target as rice millers failed to supply rice as per their commitment.”
“A major reason of delay to supply rice was abeyant signing of agreements between the government and rice mill owners. We hope it would be possible to buy the targeted rice within our extended period.”
Bangladesh Auto Major Rice Mills Owners Associations President KM Layek Ali also expressed hope that rice millers would supply rice by September 30.
Natural calamities and heavy monsoon rains also impacted the rice procurement, he said.
