Bangladesh to import grains from 5 countries including Russia and India

The government will import around 4-5 lakh metric tonnes of food grains from five different countries including Russia and India. 

The decision was taken at the regular cabinet meeting Monday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam told reporters after the meeting at the Secretariat. 

"Agreements on food import have already been signed with five countries. The prime minister said that instead of depending only on this, several other sources should be prepared as an alternative so that there are no complications at the last moment," said the cabinet secretary.

According to sources in the Ministry of Food, it held two meetings with the governments of Russia and Vietnam on 24 August where it was decided to import wheat from Russia.

At the same time, the decision to import rice from Vietnam was also finalised.

Earlier, the food ministry had decided to import 1 lakh tonnes of rice from an Indian company.

All imports will be on a government-to-government (G2G) basis.

Before the Russia-Ukraine war, the country's main sources of wheat imports were India, Canada, Russia and Ukraine. In the fiscal 2020-21, total wheat import was worth $1,558 million. Of this, 24% came from India, 23% from Canada, 21% from Russia and 17% from Ukraine. But due to the war in Ukraine and the export embargo, wheat imports from India also stopped as the nation focused on its own food security.

According to the food ministry, unofficial wheat imports were 60 lakh tonnes in 2019-20, and 48.64 lakh tonnes in 2020-21. It is 40lakh, including government imports, in FY22.