Bangladesh agrees on export price of coarse rice offered by S Lanka

Bangladesh is waiting to get response from Sri Lanka over the proposed price for exporting boiled rice, officials said.
With this end in view, the Ministry of Food (MoF) sent a letter to the Sri Lankan authority on October 12 through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
 "We sent a letter to Sri Lanka mentioning price for exporting rice per tonne. We are ready to export rice once we get their response," a high official of the MoF told the FE.   
Earlier, a delegation, led by SR Attygalle, deputy secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Planning of Sri Lanka, had a meeting with Bangladesh food minister Quamrul Islam at his ministry on October 1 last.
In the meeting, the country initially proposed to export per tonne of rice to Sri Lanka at US $ 493 including shipment, insurance and other costs. But Sri Lanka proposed the price at $ 450 for per tonne (including shipment, insurance and other costs), a high official of MoF, who participated in the meeting, told the FE.
And the MoF sent a letter to Sri Lanka through the Foreign Ministry seeking the latter's response for exporting rice at the rate of US $ 450 per metric tonne, officials said.
The MoF proposed to the cabinet committee on economic affairs, seeking exemption from the existing restriction on rice export following a request from the Sri Lankan government.
And the cabinet committee on economic affairs approved the proposal on September 18 last for exporting 50,000 tonnes of boiled rice to Sri Lanka.
The High Commission of Sri Lanka in Dhaka in a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) expressed the country's interest to import rice from Bangladesh on an emergency basis.
The MoFA conveyed the matter to the MoF for taking necessary steps. The latter took the decision of exporting 50,000 tonnes of coarse rice to Sri Lanka, considering the government's overall food stock situation and possible impact of the export on the local rice market.
The export will be under government-to- government (G-to-G) arrangement.   
The MoF also sent a letter to the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) on September 30 last requesting to bring in some changes on statutory regulatory order (SRO) to facilitate rice export to Sri Lanka.     
The MoC, through a SRO in June 2014, imposed a ban on export of all varieties of rice, except the aromatic ones, until June, 2015.
 "Sri Lanka is our friendly country. So, we decided to export 50,000 tonnes of boiled rice to that country. Presently, we have a sufficient stock of food. It will be government-to-government (G-to -G) arrangement," Finance Minister AMA Muhith told the media after a cabinet committee on economic affairs meeting last month.
Bangladesh decided to export rice to Sri Lanka aiming to further bolstering bilateral relations.
Once the shipment starts, the country will emerge as a coarse rice exporter, as no rice export, other than that of aromatic rice, has so far taken place from the country.
Though Bangladesh is going to export boiled rice (coarse variety), the country still imports a significant quantity of rice every year to meet its growing demand.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the country's rice production was about 34.36  million tonnes in the fiscal year 2013-14, nearly 0.6 million tonnes higher than that of the previous fiscal.
The total food grains stock in the country is now 1.49 million tonnes. Of the quantity, 1.14 million tonnes are rice while 0.34 million tonnes wheat and 10,098 tonnes paddy, according to the Directorate of Food.
Despite having production growth, around 0.5 million tonnes of rice were imported by the country's private sector in the last fiscal.
Meanwhile, local rice traders have ruled out any negative impact of the proposed rice export under the G-to-G initiative amid better supply of the staple food, both at the private and the government levels.
 "The stock of rice in the warehouses, of both public and private sectors, is satisfactory. So, the proposed rice export will not create any adverse impact on the domestic rice market," an influential leader of the Bangladesh Auto Major and Husking Mill Owners Association, told the FE.

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