Rice import rose by nearly 215 per cent in quantity and 400 per cent in price in the last fiscal (2007-08) compared to the previous fiscal. But still the price has not come down in the domestic market, the central bank said.
Statistics of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) showed that the country imported 2.25 million tonnes of rice in the last fiscal, which was 1.536 million tonnes higher than that in the previous fiscal (2006-07).
Bangladesh spent US$859.49 million to import rice during July-June period of the last fiscal (2007-08), up from $686.6 million in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal (2006-07), the central bank said.
In spite of the record import of rice and the bumper Boro production in the country in the last season there is no sign of any respite in the unusual price hike of the staple food in the domestic markets, a BB official said Friday.
He said the massive increase in import was due to the devastating natural disasters in the first half of the fiscal, which caused a shortfall of around two million tonnes of rice in the country.
Commerce Secretary Feroz Ahmed said: "We believe that the huge import of rice and bumper Boro production this year would keep the stock replenished. We think there is now adequate supply and there is no reason for any spike in prices," he said.
"But as the price of the staple food is still high in the domestic market we have started market monitoring aiming to stabilise the market ahead of the upcoming holy month of Ramadan," he said.
Mr. Ahmed said: "We've found that farmers have preserved rice in their own homes as their retention capacity has improved in recent days. Besides, purchasing capacity due to rising remittance flow, access to micro-credit for producing Boro rice and adequate global market information have prompted them to make the rice stock expecting higher price in future."
"In last two months, the farmers have supplied 20 to 25 per cent of their total produced rice in the market, which was 15-20 per cent less than that of the previous years. This caused some short supply in the local market resulting in higher prices," he said describing the reasons for higher price of rice.
His remarks came as the prices of rice witnessed over 60 per cent rise since the beginning of the last fiscal in July 2007. Presently, coarse rice is being sold at Tk 37-38 a kilogram, up from Tk 22-25 in July last year.
Expecting rice price fall before the Ramadan, Mr. Ahmed said: "As the 0.4 million tonnes of rice from India have started arriving in the country, some Aus rice has already been harvested and open market sale of rice at subsidised rate will be started within this month, the price of the staple food will decline soon."
The central bank's statistics also showed that the traders also imported higher quantity of pulses, sugar and onion in the last fiscal than that in the previous fiscal (2006-07). But their prices in the local market are still abnormal.
Only imports of crude edible oil and wheat declined to some extent in the last fiscal (2007-08) compared to the previous fiscal, the BB statistics said.
The BB statistics showed that the businessmen imported 539,000 tonnes of pulses, 980,000 tonnes of sugar and 413,000 tonnes of onion in the last fiscal, which were 36,000 tonnes, 264,000 tonnes and 93,000 tonnes higher than that in the previous fiscal (2006-07).
However, the businessmen in July-to-June last fiscal imported 150,600 tonnes of wheat and 100,300 tonnes of crude edible oil which were 346,000 tonnes and 50,000 tonnes down from the corresponding period of the previous fiscal (2006-07), the central bank statistics said.
215 pc increase in rice import last fiscal
FHM Humayan Kabir | Published: August 02, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
Share if you like