Philippines keen to import rice from Bangladesh

The Philippines is interested to import rice and potato from Bangladesh.

Governor of the Southeast Asian country’s central bank Amando M Tetangco expressed Manila’s interest during a meeting with Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman on Tuesday.

He said at the meeting, held at his official residence, “Bangladesh is producing more rice than its demand. We need to import huge quantity of rice. We want to import it from Bangladesh.”

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor also expressed his country’s interest in importing potato from Bangladesh and to promote trade with Dhaka.

Rahman said Bangladesh had attainted self-sufficiency in rice production and the government had already decided to export the staple to Sri Lanka.

He said initiatives could be taken now to export rice to the Philippines as well and the two governments could begin discussion on the mater.

Bangladesh Ambassador to Manila John Gomes, who was present at the meeting, said a high-level trade delegation from Bangladesh would visit the Philippines next month and may discuss on export of rice and potato then.

The process to export rice to Sri Lanka has already started following a government decision.

The government approved a proposal on Oct 27 to export 50,000 tonnes of rice to the South Asian nation at $450 a tonne.