NCCF: National Cooperative Consumers Federation of India Limited has announced its interest in exporting one lakh metric tonnes of non-basmati rice to Bangladesh.
The exchanged is to be done between the governments, known as Government-to-Government (G2G) level trade, awaits cabinet approval, officials said.
The price of non-basmati rice per ton, if imported by container ships or cargo trains, has been set at $433.60 while the total cost has been estimated at Tk 447.90 crore.
The food ministry proposal will be placed before the cabinet committee on public purchase meeting on Wednesday (21 December) The meeting will be presided over by finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.
The proposal said in order to ensure food security of the country and to keep the government’s food distribution system functioning, the Ministry of Food procures wheat and rice from the international market in addition to internal procurement.
The ministry is procuring wheat and rice through international open tender and G2G basis for they are easier to import and available at competitive prices.
According to the proposal, the prices of paddy and rice are rising in the market due to some disruption in production caused by Covid-19, increase in fuel oil price, increase in transportation cost and heavy rains and flash floods. In such a situation, it is necessary to import rice on an urgent basis in this financial year, the proposal added.
Responding to the proposal of the food ministry, India’s NCCF sent a letter on December 2, expressing its interest in supplying rice. After reviewing the letter, the Indian delegation was invited to participate in a virtual meeting moderated by the Ambassador of Bangladesh in New Delhi. Accordingly, a virtual meeting of the procurement committee was held on December 13, 2022, in Bangladesh to endorse a G2G rice trade.
In that meeting, there was discussion and negotiation on terms and price of the rice, import contract on a G2G basis etc. After several discussions and negotiations, Bangladesh decided to import one lakh metric tonnes of non-basmati parboiled rice from India and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed in this context.
The proposal said the price of rice per metric ton by sea or rail shipment would be $ 433.60, which is $11.57 more than the estimated total average price of $422.03 recommended by the Market Price Verification Committee.
However, there is an urgent need at present, as it is not possible to procure whole rice from the domestic market, as Bangladesh is named in the list of 45 food crisis countries in a report of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
Some 70,000 metric tonnes of rice will be imported by sea vessels and 30,000 metric tonnes by cargo trains.
