The government is set to procure 700,000 tonnes of rice bran oil for sale through Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
TCB has already signed necessary deals with the local rice bran oil producers directly, sources said.
The state-owned marketing agency was expected to sell the rice bran oil under its current fiscal year sale drive or it will include the item in its next sale drive.
TCB was also supposed to sell the cooking oil last fiscal year but the move was deferred due to some purchase deals-related issues.
Earlier, the Commerce Ministry decided to include rice bran oil for TCB so that they could ensure a steady supply of cooking oil along with soybean oil.
TCB sells essential commodities including sugar, cooking oil, onions, lentils, and also gram and dates during the holy month of Ramadan, at subsidized rates to keep the commodity market stable throughout the year.
The ministry moved to devise strategies for ramping up rice bran oil production aiming to cut dependency on widely-consumed soybean and palm oil, a source said.
To check the uptrend in the edible oil prices, the Commerce Ministry imposed a ban on export of rice bran oil but the ban was withdrawn later due to low demand in the domestic market.
The ministry issued a circular on June 29, removing the export ban and the producers are able to export the cooking oil from July 1.
There are 17 rice bran oil mills in the country, according to the Bangladesh Rice Bran Oil Mills Association (BRBOMA).
The mills have bran process capacity of over 1.63 million tonnes annually.
The country produces 0.343 million tonnes of crude rice bran oil annually, and it is possible to raise the production to 0.514 million tonnes, industry sources said.
At present, there is a negligible demand for rice bran oil in the local market.
Only 800 tonnes of refined rice bran oil enters the local market every month.
The ministry has removed the export bar for the sake of the industry and following requests of the entrepreneurs, a source said.
The country fetched over $175 million by exporting crude rice bran oil in the last 10 months of the fiscal year 2021-22.
Bangladesh annually imports 2.2-2.6 million tonnes of cooking oils, including 0.7-0.8 million tonnes of soybean oil and 1.4-1.6 million tonnes of palm oil.
More than 95% of the local demand for cooking oils is met through import.
The prices of cooking oils have increased across the globe due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.
