Bangladesh starts exporting parboiled rice

Bangladesh Shipping Corporation’s ship 'Kakali' has left for Sri Lanka from Chittagong Port with first consignment of 12,500 tons of parboiled rice.

It left the 4th jetty of Chittagong Port for Colombo Port at 2pm on Saturday.

Earlier in a press briefing, Director General of Directorate General of Food Sarwar Khan said the shipment was half of the 25,000 tons of parboiled rice Bangladesh agreed to export to the island country.

Remaining shipment would be despatched on the first week of January, he said.

Considering Bangladesh’s overall food demand, it would be safe to have a stock of 9-10 lakh metric tons of rice, he said.

“After maintaining the safety-level stock, we have been maintaining a surplus of about 400,000 metric tons of rice for the last four to five years,” Sarwar said.

Bangladesh has an availability to export around 75,000 tons more rice now, he said.

Sarwar also said India had proposed to import 30,000-40,000 tons rice from Bangladesh for its north-eastern states.

“India will send a delegation to finalise the matter soon,” he added.

Answering a question if the export of rice would have a negative impact on Bangladesh’s market, he said, “We have started collecting rice of the Aman season so it will not impact the internal market.”

Apart from Sarwar, Director (administration) of Directorate General of Food Tofazzal Hossain and Regional Controller of Food in Chittagong Abdul Aziz Molla were present in the port to send-off Kakali.