Leading global food-exporting countries and organizations are now willing to supply essential food grains and commodities to Bangladesh as the country is experiencing soaring prices of essential staples in the local market.
Officials said offers were coming to the authorities concerned at a time when the government was trying to ensure the country's food security amid supply chain disruptions and price hike of commodities.
Canadian firm onCorp recently proposed with specifications and price offers to the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) to export wheat.
The Russian Federation also offered to sell food products, including red lentils, green lentils, sunflower oil, yellow peas, and chickpeas, under a government-to-government (G2G) arrangement.
Besides, the National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India Limited (NCCF) and the National Federation of Farmers' Procurement Processing and Retailing Cooperatives of India Ltd (Nacof) have proposed to supply edible oil, sugar, onion, lentil, etc.
HH Enterprise in favour of Redplanet General Trading L.L.C, Dubai also has also proposed to supply sugar.
A top Commerce Ministry official added that one Canadian, one Emirati and two Indian entities put forward offers to sell various food items/food grains to Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
The state trading agency has been selling a few essential items on the open market at subsidized rates for some time now, while the government has announced to provide around 10 million people with food and essentials at subsidized rates during the month of Ramadan.
Currently, the prices of essential items like lentils, edible oil, flour, sugar, etc. are already high in the kitchen markets, hitting the consumers hard.
The government is trying to increase supply of the items, said another official.
As part of a regular practice, the government is communicating with the different developed nations/regions who are the top producers of food grains and other essential items.
A team of government officials already visited some potential markets, especially South American countries like Brazil and Argentina, from January 30 to February 4 last to explore import sources of two essential items under G2G arrangement.
Besides, Dhaka has requested New Delhi for an annual import quota for Bangladesh to bring commodities including wheat, sugar, rice, onion, garlic, and ginger.
Bangladesh imports the highest volume of the key consumer items from India.
