Bangladesh to import 250,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam

The food ministry has received the green light from a cabinet committee to import a quarter million tonnes of rice from Vietnam under a government-to-government deal.

The cabinet committee on public purchase, headed by the finance minister, cleared the import of 250,000 tonnes of rice at Tk 9.08 billion on Wednesday.

Bangladesh will buy 50,000 tonnes of parboiled rice at $470 per tonne and another 200,000 tonnes of white rice at $430 per tonne, Cabinet Division's Additional Secretary Mostafizur Rahman said at a media briefing after the meeting.

Vietnam’s state-run Vinafood 2 will supply 60 percent of shipments through Chittagong port and 40 percent through Mongla port.

Bangladesh last imported 250,000 tons of rice from Vietnam in fiscal 2011-12.

The stock in government warehouses until Apr 27 stood at 305,000 tonnes against 750,000 tonnes in the same month last year, according to data posted on the food ministry's website.

The government plans to buy 1.5 million tonnes of grains during the Boro crop season this year, which may not be possible now after flash floods inundated crop-fields in the northeast.

Unseasonal downpours in early April caused the floods leaving crop-fields inundated in Sunamganj, Kishoreganj, Netrokona, Moulvibazar, Sylhet, Habiganj, Moulvibazar and Brahmanbaria.

Flash floods damaged Boro crops, which would have yielded about 600,000 tonnes of rice. Unofficial estimates put the number at 2.2 million tonnes of rice.