Moscow nudges Dhaka to sit for edible oil price talks

Moscow wants Dhaka to buy essential food items such as soybean and palm oil from them and requested the authorities to arrange a meeting between Russian and Bangladeshi enterprises for price negotiations, according to official sources.
To this regard, the Russian Embassy in Dhaka has requested the government to organise a meeting with representatives from the commerce ministry, the Trading Corporation Bangladesh (TCB), Russian Prodintorg Joint Stock Company, the Foreign Economic Corporation and the Federation of Russia.
For edible oil purchase, the Trading Corporation Bangladesh (TCB) and Prodintorg signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on March 10, 2024. Prodintorg has ensured to provide soybean and palm oil to TCB at competitive rates.
Russia now says that representatives from both sides should negotiate to settle the issue.
A commerce ministry official said, "We are working to arrange a meeting for negotiation on edible oil as the Russian Embassy already requested the government agencies concerned."
Under the TCB MoU, Dhaka eyes purchasing of some food essentials like sunflower and palm oil, offered earlier by Moscow at competitive prices, he added.
To run subsidised commodity drives smoothly under the TCB, the government is set to import key food items from sanction-hit Russia under a G2G basis, according to official sources.
Throughout 2023, Russia expressed interest in expanding cooperation through a G2G supply of lentils, sunflower oil, peas and chickpeas to Bangladesh at competitive prices.
Prodintorg, already Bangladesh's sole G2G supplier of agricultural products and fertilisers since 2013, boasts of supplying over 1.3 million tonnes of potash fertiliser and 1.5 million tonnes of milling wheat since their partnership began, according to the Russian company.
"Since the beginning of cooperation, the state agency has already supplied to Bangladesh more than 1.3 million tonnes of potash fertiliser and more than 1.5 million tonnes of milling wheat," the letter mentioned.
Edible oil, sugar, lentils, etc are already pricier in the kitchen markets, hitting consumers hard. The state-run TCB currently procures different essential items from local and foreign sources for selling to 10 million low-income people.
In June 2024, the government signed a procurement contract with a Russia's state-owned corporation to import 180,000 tonnes of fertilisers despite sanctions against Russia.
Currently, Bangladesh is trying to get its annual food quota imported from neighbouring India to keep its market stable.

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