Philippines keen to import rice from Bangladesh
The agriculture minister said Manila wants to import rice through government-to-government purchase system
The Philippines is willing to import rice from Bangladesh, said Agriculture Minister Md Abdur Razzaque on Monday.
“A delegation from the Philippines met me today,” he said. “The country wants to buy the good quality of coarse rice at a reasonable price from Dhaka compared to Vietnam and Thailand.’’
Later in the day, the minister held a meeting with local rice traders.
Briefing journalists at his ministry office, Razzaque said, “The Philippines government will import rice through government-to-government purchase system (G2G).’’
He said the delegates have already visited different mills for choosing rice for the people of the Philippines who eat boiled rice.
The agriculture minister said he had already met Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi about signing a rice export deal with Manila.
Abdul Rashid, managing director of Rashid Group, has expressed his interest to export coarse rice.
Recently, Dhaka decided to export 1 million to 1.5 million tonnes of rice through the private sector in order to ensure fair prices for farmers.
However, on June 1, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) said Bangladesh is still not in a position to export rice. It says the government should procure rice directly from the farmers to ensure fair price.
