Rice imports from India suspended at Hili Land Port

Rice imports from India have been suspended at Dinajpur’s Hili Land Port. Other goods are, however, being imported and exported as usual.

The land port stopped importing rice completely on Dec 1.

Over the past four months, 234,270 metric tonnes of rice have been imported through the land port, according to MR Zaman, a customs duties official at Hili.

“The government approved imports from India on the 12th of August in order to stabilise the local rice market,” he said.

“After that, import permissions were extended in two rounds until the 30th of November. Now that the permitted period has ended, rice imports are suspended once again.”

Though rice imports are suspended, the import and export of other goods is proceeding as normal, the customs official said.

Rice prices have gone down Tk 5-6 per kg at the Hili Land Port market as supply exceeds demand.

A visit to the rice market found that imported Indian golden rice is being sold at a retail price of Tk 67 per kg, down from Tk 72. Hybrid coarse rice is being sold at Tk 48 per kg, down from Tk 53-54.

Importer Dinesh Poddar said that rice prices have been cut due to a shortage of buyers.

Despite this, no buyers are showing up and importers are making losses, he said.