Bangladesh blacklists 16,000 millers for illegal rice hoarding

The government has blacklisted 16,000 rice millers for hoarding in an effort to manipulate prices.

Food Minister Qamrul Islam said on Thursday that they will not procure rice from these millers for the next three years.

"The only reason behind spiralling rice prices was stockpiling by unscrupulous traders following the flash floods in the haor area," he said at a media briefing at the ministry.

Islam said the government's target for procuring rice hit snags for the 'huge difference' between the market price and the government-fixed rate of Tk 34 for a kg. 
 
There are 20,000 rice mills in the country, according to Md Badrul Hasan, director general of Directorate General of Food.

Consumers enjoyed steady rice prices in the last couple of years with abundance in production but this year, flash floods hit hard the ‘Boro’ rice cultivation damaging around 600,000 tonnes of paddy in the backswamps in northeastern Bangladesh.

The government’s stock of rice also thinned following the 'Rice at Tk 10 per kg' project for poor families.

At this point, import duty on rice was slashed to 10 percent, from the existing 28 percent, to encourage private traders to purchase more from abroad.

Wholesalers blamed the hike during Ramadan, when rice prices soared to Tk 60 a kg, on some industrialists trying to control the rice market countrywide with auto-mills.

At the end of June, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina blamed “unscrupulous traders” for the “abnormal rice price hike” during a session in parliament.

There are currently 16,000 auto rice mills in the country, according to Bangladesh Auto Major and Husking Rice Mill Owners. These mills have taken over the traditional rice production methods.

When asked whether the demand can be met through only 4,000 registered mills, Badrul said: “The government procures around 1.2 million tonnes of rice internally which can be easily collected from 2,000 to 2,500 mills.”

Hoarders are now releasing the stocks as consignments have started to arrive from India, the minister said.

Bangladesh is importing a quarter million tonnes of rice from Vietnam under a government-to-government deal, the first consignment of which has already arrived.

With 20,000 metric tonnes of rice, the ship arrived at Chittagong port on Thursday, said Qamrul.

“The ship will be unloaded after finishing customs formalities,” he said. The second consignment with 22,000 tonnes of rice will arrive on Jul 18 while two more consignments with 21,000 tonnes and 30,000 tonnes of rice will arrive on Jul 30.

Neither the minister nor other officials of his ministry responded to reporters’ repeated queries on what the exact amount of rice the government has in reserve.

Qamrul only said: “There is enough.”

“We do not need to spare from our stock at this moment except for some relief work.”

He called on journalists to refrain from publishing “negative news” over rice stock.

When asked why the rice import was delayed, he said: “We issued a letter asking for removal of tariff earlier but the prime minister was thoughtful about farmers. It was removed after farmers received due prices for their produces.”