Bangladesh to import 50,000 tonnes of parboiled rice from India

The government has approved a proposal to import 50,000 tonnes of parboiled non-Basmati rice from India in the year 2020-21 through international quotation.

Additional Cabinet Secretary Abu Saleh Mostafa Kamal briefed the media online after the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase approved the proposal in a meeting on Wednesday.

Law Minister Anisul Huq chaired the meeting as Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal is abroad.

The recommended bidder to supply the rice is PK Agri Link Pvt Ltd of West Bengal.

Bangladesh will buy the rice at total $20.8 million or $416 per tonne.

The cost, including shipment, will be Tk 35.27 per kg.

The committee also approved a proposal to import 25,000 tonnes of urea fertiliser at Tk 546.8 million from Qatar’s Muntajat in the ongoing fiscal year.

Through another proposal cleared in the meeting, the government will buy 600,000 tonnes of DAP fertiliser under a deal between Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation and Saudi Arabia’s Madin at over Tk 20.97 billion.

The other purchase proposals approved in the meeting include those related to the Karnaphuli tunnel link road in Chattogram, nine residential towers for the police, maintenance dredging of a channel at Payra port, and a land-based LNG terminal at Matarbari in Moheshkhali of Cox’s Bazar.