CHITTAGONG, Dec 27: Bangladesh is mulling rice export to India as it has exported the first consignment of rice to Sri Lanka today.
Senior officials said a proposal from India to export rice to Uttar Pradesh is in place. The proposal for exporting 30,000 metric tonnes (MT) of rice is under active consideration of the government.
Director General (DG) of Food Sarwar Khan told the media during departure of MV Banglar Kakoli with 12,500 metric tonnes of boiled rice from Chittagong Port for Sri Lanka. He said that Bangladesh has sufficient stock of rice now from which the country can export 0.1 million MT of rice. Sri Lanka has signed an agreement to buy 50,000 MT of rice at the rate of US$ 450 per metric tonne.
If discussion proceeds successfully Bangladesh will export another 30,000 MT of rice to India in the near future, he said.
The first consignment of 12,500 MT of rice was sent today in the first phase of 25,000 MT of rice while the rest will be exported soon. The second consignment of 12,500 MT rice for export to Sri Lanka will be loaded in another vessel of the state-owned Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC), he said.
Senior officials of the department of food, BSC, Chittagong Port Authority and Chittagong Custom House were present on the occasion at jetty no. 3 of the seaport this afternoon.
The BSC vessel MV Kakoli set sail for the Sri Lankan port of Colombo from Chittagong Port at 1.50 pm on Saturday with the beginning of the high tide.
Bangladesh had earlier exported aromatic rice to other countries in small quantities but this is the first time that the country is exporting rice in bulk quantity as it claims itself to be self-sufficient in rice production now.
Though the public sector import of rice had been negligible since last fiscal (2013-14), the import of the same by the private sector has been on the rise during the period.
The private sector imported 371,000 metric tonnes of rice during the last fiscal and the import of the country's main staple food until December 22 this fiscal was 454,000 MT.
