The government plans to impose a temporary ban on rice bran exports with a view to promoting the flourishing local rice bran oil manufacturing sector.
“We are now collecting information on the domestic production of rice bran and the annual import of non-oil rice bran to get a clear picture of its availability in the country,” said a top official of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
Depending on the picture, the government would enforce the ban as soon as possible, he said.
The official said the EPB had written to government agencies, including the Food Department, to measure the demand for rice bran in the already established rice bran oil industries.
“At the same time, a letter was also sent to the Commerce Ministry asking officials to discourage rice mill owners from exporting rice bran to India,” he added. At present, seven companies produce rice bran oil – Majumder Products Limited, KBC Agro Products, Majumder Agro Products, Emerald Oil, Rashid Oil, Green Oil and Ali Natural Oil Mill – while six more are about to install production units.
Mill owners say husk, bran oil and de-oiled bran are three by-products produced when the grain is extracted. Of those, bran oil is used for producing edible oil, de-oiled bran is used as poultry and cattle feed, and husk as fuel.
The annual demand for rice bran as a raw material for the existing seven rice bran oil factories is around 7.65 lakh tonnes; the total demand for all 13 factories will stand at 12.45 lakh tonnes. The country produces around 24 lakh tonnes of bran annually.
Bangladesh, however, also imports some additional volumes of de-oiled bran to meet the demand for the poultry industry. The government has already imposed a 10% supplementary duty on rice bran export in the budget for the current fiscal, reducing the volume of rice bran export remarkably.
Nitai Das, an exporter from Naogaon, told the Dhaka Tribune that he had to stop exporting rice bran last month as the importers were disinterested in buying at higher prices.
According to the EPB, the export figure of rice bran in 2012-13 stood at around $16m while it was only about $6m in 2013-14.
Moreover, prices of the rice bran sharply fell because of a lack of adequate demand in the local market and imposition of export duty.
A 50kg sack of rice bran now costs Tk800 which was Tk1,100 in the last fiscal year, said Layek Ali, convener of Bangladesh Major, Auto and Husking Mills Owner Association.
Dr Asaduzzaman, a fellow at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), argued that the decision to ban rice bran exports had come early.
“The demand for rice bran oil in the country is obviously less than the production. Otherwise, the prices in the local market would not have fallen this way,” he said.
In addition, the government directed husking mill owners, the major rice producers in the country, to fix auto crushers in the mills by next January in order to avoid loss of grain and produce more rice bran. Upon implementation of the order, production of rice bran would be higher than the demand in the country, said Layek.
To avoid losses, the government should consider banning export of rice bran after ensuring the total demand in the local market is met, Asaduzzaman said.
