DHAKA: Bangladesh received a lowest offer of $406.48 a tonne from Singapore-based Agrocorp International in a tender that opened on Sunday to import 50,000 tonnes of white rice, Reuters reports quoting officials at the state grains buyer. Five traders competed for the tender issued by the Directorate General of Food at a time when local rice prices have reached record highs and state reserves are at 10-year lows. Government officials last week said Bangladesh would speed up plans to import rice to build reserves and rein in prices after flash floods hit domestic output. As part of that, a Bangladeshi delegation visited Vietnam to finalise imports of rice in a government-to-government deal, a procurement official, declining to be named, said without giving further details on the transaction. Ramped up demand from Bangladesh, the world’s fourth-biggest rice producer, could underpin prices in major exporters Vietnam, Thailand and India. “We are making frantic efforts to boost state reserves and bring down prices of rice,” said the procurement official.
Local rice prices have reached record highs and state reserves are at 10-year lows in the wake of flooding in April that wiped out around 700,000 tonnes of output. The state grains buyer earlier this month said it would ship in 600,000 tonnes of rice after the flooding, initially issuing two tenders for a total of 100,000 tonnes of rice, its first such tenders since 2011. Meanwhile, the procurement official said the government had decided not to withdraw duty on private rice imports, looking to protect farmers. Bangladesh produces around 34 million tonnes of rice annually but uses almost all its production to feed its population. It often requires imports to cope with shortages caused by natural calamities like floods and droughts.
