Govt wants to know about timeframe, price of Indian rice

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FE Report
The government has sought from the Indian authorities about the timeframe and price of 0.5 million tonnes (MT) of rice, which India will export to Bangladesh, sources said.
They said the request was made at a meeting held between senior government and Indian High Commission officials Sunday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).
Sources said the senior officials of the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management (MFDM), the MoFA and the Ministry of Commerce were present at the meeting.
"We have conveyed the request of our government to the authorities concerned of India through its High Commission to let us know the deadline of rice export as we need to procure the same by February," a senior official of the MFDM told FE Monday.
He said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would have to be signed by the state agencies of the countries before internal procurement of rice starts in India.
During the meeting, the government officials also requested their counterpart to provide them details of the price of rice, freight charges and proposed date for signing the MoU, the official said
When asked, he said the officials of the Indian High Commission assured of conveying the request of the Bangladesh government to the authorities concerned in India.
The Indian government decided to lift the ban on export of 0.5 MT of rice to Bangladesh in the wake of the November 15 cyclone that damaged agricultural crops in the southern coastal region of the country.
Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced his government's decision about lifting the ban on rice export during his visit to Dhaka on December 1.