Deal with Thailand this month to import rice

The government is set to sign an agreement with Thailand in the second week of this month (August) to import rice from the Southeast Asian country, officials said.
The ministry of food (MoF) will ink the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Thailand to import the main staple aiming to keep its prices stable on the local market.
The MoF has already finalised the draft of the MoU on rice import from Thailand, according to sources at the state-run Directorate General of Food.  
"We will sign an MoU with Thailand on rice import at the 4th Bangladesh-Thailand joint trade committee (JTC) meeting next month (August)," a high official of the MoF told the FF on Monday.
He, however, did not disclose the amount of rice to be imported from Thailand, but hinted that the amount might be around 0.2 million tonnes.      
Bangladesh commerce minister Tofail Ahmed and Thai commerce minister Apiradi Tantraporn will lead their respective sides at the JTC meeting which will kick off in Dhaka on August 09.
Bangladesh food minister Md Qamrul Islam and Thai commerce minister Apiradi Tantraporn will sign the MoU at the meeting on August 10 on behalf of their respective sides.
Earlier, the Directorate General of Food under the food ministry had set a target to import 0.6 million tonnes of rice from different countries.
Under the move, import of 250,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam is now under way.
Besides, a Dubai-based Phoenix Global company will supply 50,000 tonnes of rice.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has allowed importers to import rice on three months' deferred payment (until December 31, 2017), a step that has prompted them to import more rice.       
Fine variety of rice was sold between Tk 54 and Tk 58 a kg on Monday, depending on its quality. The prices ranged from Tk 44 to Tk 55 per kg a year ago, showing a 13 per cent hike over the last one year.  
Price of coarse variety increased 35.9 per cent over the last one year. A kg of coarse rice was sold between Tk 42 and Tk 45 on the day, which ranged from Tk 30 to Tk 34 just a year ago, according to the data of the state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) prepared in July, 2017.
At present, the government has a stock of over 0.2 million tonnes of rice.
Rice is the main staple food for Bangladesh's 160 million people. Besides, wheat consumption is also rising due to lifestyle changes.
Apart from rice import, the government will finalise other agendas at an inter-ministerial meeting today (Tuesday) which will also be discussed during the upcoming JTC meeting, a high official of the commerce ministry told the FE.
    talhabinhabib@yahoo.com