Storage problem scuttles govt plan to raise Boro purchase target
Saturday, 29 August 2009
S M Jahangir
The government is finding it difficult to raise the Boro procurement target in absence of storage facilities, despite getting a 'huge response' from the local rice suppliers, officail sources said.
"A previous such plan faced a major blow mainly due to warehouse scarcity," a senior food and disaster ministry told the FE.
The officail further said the authorities are already facing immense problems for storing the foodgrain, supplied by the rice millers.
"The food department finds itself in a difficult situation to store the foodgrain, for which it has signed purchase deals with local rice millers," said the officail.
The current space shortage has also forced the government to gear up efforts for creating fresh warehouse facilities for the ongoing Boro collection drive, officials of food and disaster ministry said.
The procurement authorities have almost reached the 1.25 million tonnes rice purchase target set for the past Boro cropping season, officials said, adding the Boro procurement drive will expire August 31.
Earlier, the government had fixed the target of purchasing 1.05 million tonnes of boiled rice, 50,000 tonnes non-boiled (atap) rice and 150,000 tonnes of paddy for the Boro season.
Until August 24, the authorities had already signed deals with millers on purchase of nearly 0.98 million tonnes of rice, which was about 94 per cent of the target.
Referring to officail data, an officail admitted that the procurement of paddy was still 40 per cent lower than the target as the authorities collected nearly 90,000 tonnes of paddy until August 24 last.
However, some 73 per cent of the targeted 'atap' rice was also collected until the period, officials said.
About the warehouse problem, the effective storage capacity under the government's existing food godowns is estimated at 1.47 million tonnes, which is quite insufficient to meet the current demand.
Of the total capacity, the government has now stock of about 1.1 million tonnes of foodgrains, officials said, adding that the food department is facing problems for storing the foodgrains, delivery of which are now in the pipeline from the millers.
They, however, said this year the country's millers are keen to sell rice to the government because of better price.
According to them, the government had fixed the rice procurement price at Tk 22 per kg, which is comparatively higher that that of open market prices.
"Despite such advantages, the prevailing space scarcity may force the government to drop its previous plan to further raise the Boro procurement target," said an officail.
A senior food and disaster ministry officail, however, informed the FE that the government had a plan to enhance its foodgrains storage capacity by 0.5 to 0.6 million tonnes in the near future.
The authorities have already discussed the proposals on setting of some food godowns, especially in the country's northern areas, with the help of donors, he added.
The government is finding it difficult to raise the Boro procurement target in absence of storage facilities, despite getting a 'huge response' from the local rice suppliers, officail sources said.
"A previous such plan faced a major blow mainly due to warehouse scarcity," a senior food and disaster ministry told the FE.
The officail further said the authorities are already facing immense problems for storing the foodgrain, supplied by the rice millers.
"The food department finds itself in a difficult situation to store the foodgrain, for which it has signed purchase deals with local rice millers," said the officail.
The current space shortage has also forced the government to gear up efforts for creating fresh warehouse facilities for the ongoing Boro collection drive, officials of food and disaster ministry said.
The procurement authorities have almost reached the 1.25 million tonnes rice purchase target set for the past Boro cropping season, officials said, adding the Boro procurement drive will expire August 31.
Earlier, the government had fixed the target of purchasing 1.05 million tonnes of boiled rice, 50,000 tonnes non-boiled (atap) rice and 150,000 tonnes of paddy for the Boro season.
Until August 24, the authorities had already signed deals with millers on purchase of nearly 0.98 million tonnes of rice, which was about 94 per cent of the target.
Referring to officail data, an officail admitted that the procurement of paddy was still 40 per cent lower than the target as the authorities collected nearly 90,000 tonnes of paddy until August 24 last.
However, some 73 per cent of the targeted 'atap' rice was also collected until the period, officials said.
About the warehouse problem, the effective storage capacity under the government's existing food godowns is estimated at 1.47 million tonnes, which is quite insufficient to meet the current demand.
Of the total capacity, the government has now stock of about 1.1 million tonnes of foodgrains, officials said, adding that the food department is facing problems for storing the foodgrains, delivery of which are now in the pipeline from the millers.
They, however, said this year the country's millers are keen to sell rice to the government because of better price.
According to them, the government had fixed the rice procurement price at Tk 22 per kg, which is comparatively higher that that of open market prices.
"Despite such advantages, the prevailing space scarcity may force the government to drop its previous plan to further raise the Boro procurement target," said an officail.
A senior food and disaster ministry officail, however, informed the FE that the government had a plan to enhance its foodgrains storage capacity by 0.5 to 0.6 million tonnes in the near future.
The authorities have already discussed the proposals on setting of some food godowns, especially in the country's northern areas, with the help of donors, he added.