The advisory council committee on government purchase in a meeting on Wednesday approved two separate proposals to import of around 100,000 lakh tonnes of rice at around Tk 721.49 crore.聽聽
The meeting presided over by finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed from the Uninted States on an online platform also approved three separate proposals linked to import of 1.05 crore tonnes of fertilizer by Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation and Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation.
One of the two rice purchase deals-- 50,000 tonnes of non-boiled rice-- will be supplied by Myanmar Rice Federation at a cost of Tk 229.32 crore with per tonne costing $376 under a government- to-government deal with the Director Gneberal of Food under the ministry of food.
Another 50,000 tonnes of rice, this one non-basmati, will be supplied by M/S Credent One FZCO of the United Arab Emirates which won an open tender of the DG Food quoting Tk 216.90 crore.
Each tonne of parboiled rice will cost $355.99.
For the current financial year of 2025-26, the government has planned to import 900,000 tonnes of rice to help stabilize domestic prices.
On October 7, the advisory council committee on government purchase decided to import of 50,000 tonnes of non-basmati rice from India.
Indian supplier Bagadiya Brothers Private Ltd won the supply bid quoting Tk 219.09 crore with the price of per tonne of rice fixed at $359.77.
The policymakers said rice import is partly aimed at building reserves so that domestic procurement or production does not fall short. Having a government buffer stock is always better, as private stocks alone may not stabilise the market, they said.
The Economic Update and Outlook, released by the General Economics Division of the Planning Commission on Tuesday, said that inflation edged up slightly to 8.36 per cent in September despite a fall in rice prices in August.
The prices of rice which are largely blamed for high food inflation in country fell by one percentage points in September from August.
The fall has been attributed by the GED to the government recent approvals for importing rice and 2,20,000 tonnes of wheat from the US.
The government is also processing to give import order for 4,00,000 tonnes of rice in the next month.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽
The advisory council committee on government purchase also approved three separate proposals linked to import of 1.05 crore tonnes of fertilizer by Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation and Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation.
BCIC will import 30,000 tonnes of urea from Saudi Arabia at Tk 151 .7 crore with per tonne costing $413 under the government-to-government negotiation.
BADC will import 40,000 tonnes of diammonium phosphate from Morocco at Tk 360.1 crore with per tonne costing $735 under the government-to-government negotiation.
It will also import 35,000 tonnes of muriate of potash from Russia under the government-to-government negotiation with per tonne costing $365 and overall Tk 152 .6 crore.
