Govt mulling exporting rice to India

Prime Minister and Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina said on Wednesday the government is considering exporting rice to India as the latter has expressed its interest in importing rice from Bangladesh.

"India has expressed its interest in importing 20,000-30,000 tonnes of rice from Bangladesh and the issue of exporting rice in future would be considered by reviewing the food security situation," she said, reports BSS.

Replying to a question from independent lawmaker Md Rustam Ali Farazi in the House, Sheikh Hasina said 25,000 tonnes of rice have already been exported to Sri Lanka after the present government took a decision to export rice to the island state.

"Bangladesh has been able to export rice to Sri Lanka because of pragmatic steps of the Awami League government.....it is a remarkable success of the Awami League government," she said.

Terming Awami League government as an agriculture-friendly one, Sheikh Hasina said the country's farmers produce crops through their hard labour.

"We have been able to overcome food deficit thanks to our agri-friendly programmes meaning coordinated and time-befitting steps," she said.

The Prime Minister said total demand for rice and wheat in the country is now about 29.5 million tonnes. Of the food grains, she said, the demand of rice is nearly 26.8 million tonnes and the wheat is about 2.7 million tonnes.

Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh produced 28.3 million tonnes food grains in 2008 and the country had to import over 3.46 million tonnes food grains in that year.

"It is being expected that a total of 38.7 million tonnes food grains would be produced in the current fiscal due to undertaking and implementation of far-sighted agri and agriculture-friendly policy," she said.

Mentioning that the demand for food grains in the country this year is 29.5 million tonnes, the Prime Minister expressed her hope that there would be surplus food grains in the country for export.