PM directs import of additional food grains

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the food ministry to import additional food grains from countries other than the usual ones in order to ensure food security in the country.

The PM provided the directive at a cabinet meeting held at her office on Sunday.

The government will import around 4-5 lakh tonnes of food grains from five different countries including Russia and India, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam told reporters at the Secretariat after the meeting.

The decision was taken at the regular cabinet meeting Monday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, he said.

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

The Cabinet secretary added that there is no problem in importing food from Russia.

"According to the Food Ministry, the country's current stock of food grains is more than 20 lakh tonne. We're in a comfortable situation in terms of the speculated food crisis in November," 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 when 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 tonne 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 billion. 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 tonne in 2019-20, and 48.64 lakh tonnes in 2020-21. It is 40 lakh tonnes, including government imports, in FY22.

Food aid to continue for 3 months

The government started the Food Friendly Programme (FFP) and open market sale (OMS) of rice for low-income people from Thursday as per the directives of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and it will continue for three months.

The market price is now stable and sometimes it is decreasing day by day due to the FFP, the cabinet secretary said.

In the meantime, the government has increased the number of OMS dealers from 913 to 2,363.

The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) card holders will get 5kg of rice twice a month at a price of Tk30 per kg while common people who do not have TCB card will be given the same amount of rice against NID card.

Under the FFP, more than 50 lakh families all over the country will get 30 kg of rice per month at a price of Tk15 per kg.