Government unlikely to achieve Boro procurement target
S M Jahangir | Sunday, 6 July 2008
The government is unlikely to achieve its Boro rice procurement target of nearly 1.5 million tonnes mainly due to a mismatch between the official rate and open market price coupled with hoarding by a section of wholesalers, sources said.
Officials said despite a bumper Boro crop in current season, the authorities face a difficult situation to achieve its rice procurement target.
More than three months of drive, the department of food has been able to procure only 582,000 tonnes of rice and around 50,000 tonnes of paddy against the targets of 1.2 million tonnes and 300,000 tonnes respectively, official sources said.
So far, the authorities have signed agreement on purchase of nearly 990,000 tonnes of foodgrain with the rice millers, they added.
According to officials, private rice millers are reluctant to supply rice to the government because of considerable high price in the open market compared with the official procurement rate.
Under its current procurement drive, the government has fixed the price of rice at Tk 28 per kg while the coarse rice is now selling between Tk 30 and Tk 32 per kg at the grower's level, sources said.
"Despite making extra efforts, we are getting poor response from the rice millers mainly because of the price mismatch," said an official.
They also observed that hoarding was taking place to a great extent, posing a threat to the stability of rice market.
Seeing a surging price of rice, a 'strong syndicate' of rice millers and traders is active to create an artificial crisis in the rice market to make 'windfall' profits.
Some officials, however, feared that the government would lose its control over the rice market unless necessary stapes were taken to prevent such unethical hoarding.
Despite having an adequate supply of Boro paddy, the prices of rice have already started rising again in local market, the observed.
When there is a rising trend in the prices of rice in the domestic market, there is little scope for achieving the rice procurement target. The foodgrain purchase drive will continue until August 31, 2008, he mentioned.
A senior official said the ministry of Food and Disaster Management has asked food department to gear up its field-level procurement drive in order to achieve the internal food procurement target.
Taking a slow procurement performance into consideration, Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed earlier advised the authorities concerned to take necessary steps for achieving the foodgrain procurement target, set for the current Boro season.
At a recent meeting with senior officials of Ministry of Food and Disaster Management, the CA also asked the food procurement agency for raising the collection of Boro rice to at least 0.8 million tonnes by June 30, they said.
Officials said despite a bumper Boro crop in current season, the authorities face a difficult situation to achieve its rice procurement target.
More than three months of drive, the department of food has been able to procure only 582,000 tonnes of rice and around 50,000 tonnes of paddy against the targets of 1.2 million tonnes and 300,000 tonnes respectively, official sources said.
So far, the authorities have signed agreement on purchase of nearly 990,000 tonnes of foodgrain with the rice millers, they added.
According to officials, private rice millers are reluctant to supply rice to the government because of considerable high price in the open market compared with the official procurement rate.
Under its current procurement drive, the government has fixed the price of rice at Tk 28 per kg while the coarse rice is now selling between Tk 30 and Tk 32 per kg at the grower's level, sources said.
"Despite making extra efforts, we are getting poor response from the rice millers mainly because of the price mismatch," said an official.
They also observed that hoarding was taking place to a great extent, posing a threat to the stability of rice market.
Seeing a surging price of rice, a 'strong syndicate' of rice millers and traders is active to create an artificial crisis in the rice market to make 'windfall' profits.
Some officials, however, feared that the government would lose its control over the rice market unless necessary stapes were taken to prevent such unethical hoarding.
Despite having an adequate supply of Boro paddy, the prices of rice have already started rising again in local market, the observed.
When there is a rising trend in the prices of rice in the domestic market, there is little scope for achieving the rice procurement target. The foodgrain purchase drive will continue until August 31, 2008, he mentioned.
A senior official said the ministry of Food and Disaster Management has asked food department to gear up its field-level procurement drive in order to achieve the internal food procurement target.
Taking a slow procurement performance into consideration, Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed earlier advised the authorities concerned to take necessary steps for achieving the foodgrain procurement target, set for the current Boro season.
At a recent meeting with senior officials of Ministry of Food and Disaster Management, the CA also asked the food procurement agency for raising the collection of Boro rice to at least 0.8 million tonnes by June 30, they said.