Businessmen urged to import foodgrains to avert shortfall

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Siddique Islam
The government has urged the business community for taking necessary measures to import essentials, including foodgrains, on an emergency basis to avert shortfall in the near future, official sources said.
The food directorate under the food ministry has sent a letter to the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) requesting it to take initiatives for speedy import of essentials.
The country's apex trade body has already informed its member trade bodies across the country for taking necessary actions about the matter.
"We have informed all our member trade bodies across the country to take steps for importing essentials on an emergency basis," a senior official of the FBCCI told the FE Thursday.
He also said the FBCCI is expecting all concerned to come forward to importing foodgrains and other essentials.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) has taken a decision to extend its foreign currency liquidity support on a priority basis to the commercial banks to settle import bills for essentials, including foodgrains and petroleum products.
"We are very much concerned about import of foodgrains and petroleum products. Steps have been taken so that imports of such essentials are not affected in any case," a BB senior official told the FE.
He also said the central bank is now providing foreign currency liquidity support to the commercial banks aiming to keep the country's foreign exchange market stable.
The central bank has, so far, sold US$177.50 million to the commercial banks in line with its ongoing intervention in the inter-bank foreign exchange market.
"The government is ready to extend allout cooperation to the business community for importing essential commodities," the food directorate said in its letter, which has been sent to the FBBCI.
The directorate also said: "Your (business community) cooperation will certainly help the country avert any crisis."
Referring to the floods and cyclone, the directorate said production of major Aman paddy is likely to be affected badly.
Cyclone Sidr that struck the country recently has partially or totally damaged standing crops on around 0.5 million hectares of land in south and south-western districts, causing a loss of around 0.6 million tonnes of food crops, particularly the Aman paddy, according to the initial assessment of the agriculture ministry.
The cyclone also damaged winter vegetables, oil seeds, pulses, transplanted Aman paddy of local and high yielding varieties and seedbeds of Boro paddy on a vast area.
Import of food grains stood higher at 0.862 million tonnes during the July- September period of the current fiscal compared to 0.306 million tonnes in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
Stock of food grains with the government, stood at 0.794 million tonnes at the end of September last compared to 0.896 million tonnes at the end of September, 2006, according to the official statistics.
Total food production target has been fixed at 32.496 million tonnes initially for the fiscal 2007-08.