Boro rice, paddy procurement period extended for one month

The government has extended its Boro rice and paddy procurement period for one month to achieve the target, officials said.   

The ongoing Boro procurement drive started in May last and was supposed to end in August. The government has extended the deadline until September as it could not fulfil the target on scheduled time due to flash floods in some parts of the country.  

 "We extended the deadline till September 30 for fulfilling our Boro rice and paddy procurement target," Shaikh Roka Mia, Additional Director (Procurement), Directorate General of Food told the FE.    

Earlier, the government had fixed the target to procure 0.9 million tonnes of boiled rice while 0.1 million tonnes of non- boiled rice and 0.15 million tonnes of paddy.  

The procurement price for per kg Boro rice this year has been fixed at Tk 31 while non-boiled rice at Tk 30 and paddy at Tk 20 per kg.

The production cost of paddy was Tk 17.50 per kg while that of rice Tk 26.50.  Last year, the government had procured paddy at Tk 18.50 per kg while rice at Tk 29.

After the start of the ongoing procurement drive the  government has revised its target for procuring a total of 9, 65,000 tonnes boiled rice as it reduced the target to procure paddy to  50,000 tonnes from the previous 0.15 million tonnes.  

The government converted 0.1 million tonnes of paddy to 65,000 tonnes of rice out of its earlier declared procurement target of 0.15 million tonnes of paddy.

The total target for procuring Boro boiled and non-boiled rice now stands at 1.065 millions tonnes (0.965 million tonnes boiled rice + 0.1 million tonnes non-boiled rice = 1.065 million tonnes).

To fulfil the procurement target the government has signed contracts with 14,444 millers to supply 0.99 tonnes of boiled rice while 618 millers will supply 0.1 million tonnes of non-boiled rice to the government.  

Till date the DG Food has procured 0.83 million tonnes of boiled rice, showing 86.52 per cent success for achieving the target. It has already procured 69,785 tonnes of non-boiled rice. The rate of success for reaching the target is 69.79 per cent, according to the official data.

Last year the government had targeted to procure 0.9 million tonnes of rice and 0.15 million tonnes of paddy and that was fulfilled.

The total food grains stock in the country is now 1.49 million tonnes. Out of the quantity 1.14 million tonnes are rice while 0.34 million tonnes are wheat and 10,098 tonnes are paddy, according to DG Food.