No need to import rice, PM tells JS

Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina told the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) Wednesday that there was no need to import rice at the state level, as the country witnessed good production of paddy, reports BSS.
"The country has now a stock of 10,07,492 tonnes of foodgrains and it is satisfactory," the PM said while replying to a tabled question from Treasury Bench member Md Ayen Uddin in the question-answer session on the day.
The PM told the JS that of the food grains, rice accounted for 629,274 tonnes and wheat 377,613 tonnes.
Apart from this, the PM said an arrangement had been made to procure 1.40 million tonnes of rice and 0.15 million tonnes of wheat from the internal source and 0.20 million tonnes of rice and 0.90 million tonnes of wheat from external sources in the next fiscal year (FY) 2014-15.
The Leader of the House said the government raised an emergency stock through procurement of rice and wheat through internal and import sources every year.
The PM said arrangements were made in the revised budget for the FY 2013-14 to purchase 0.15 million tonnes of wheat and 1.3 million tonnes of rice form the internal source.
Similarly, there were arrangements to procure 0.95 million tonnes of wheat and 0.150 million tonnes of rice from overseas, the PM said.
The PM also said 996,227 tonnes of rice and 145,154 tonnes of wheat were purchased from the internal source.
"On the other hand, 0.85 million tonnes of wheat were procured from the overseas markets and 0.10 million tonnes of wheat are in the pipeline which would be unloaded at Chittagong Port soon," the PM said.