Bangladesh to import wheat on back of rice crunch

The government is importing 4.5 lakh tonnes of wheat to compensate for the deficit in procurement of Aman rice and lack of rice in the international market. The import is aimed at meeting the country's internal food demand and bolstering food security programmes. Food ministry officials said the wheat is being imported from Russia and Turkey. "In spite of having sufficient food reserves, the government is going for import because of some problems in production situation," Food and disaster management minister Abdur Razzak told bdnews24.com. However, the decision to import wheat has been taken due to lack of enough rice in the international market, he said. "We're getting proposals for importing rice from various countries including India", the minister said, adding "but the problem is no other country exports boiled rice except India". . "However, India has stopped rice exports for lack of productions. Countries who want to export to Bangladesh, including Thailand and Myanmar, sell un-boiled rice which we cannot bring in large amounts due to lack of popularity." Under these circumstances, the government has taken initiative to import wheat to make up for the food deficit, the minister said. According to the food ministry, the procurement target of Aman rice was 3 lakh tonnes. But so far only 22,000 tonnes have been procured. Ministry officials said that the government has around 7.5 lakh tonnes of food reserve, which cannot be released until the production situation in the Boro season becomes clear. The food minister said that they are prepared to start Test Relief programme at upazila levels. But it is being deferred because of the delay in wheat import. The ministry is intent on releasing this year's first wheat allocations under the TR programme by Mar 26. The first consignment of 3 lakh tonnes of wheat are to reach the country by the end of March and the second shipment of 1.5 lakh tonnes is to arrive by Apr 12. The government expects to release the imported wheat by Apr 26. Disaster management bureau director general Zahirul Huq told bdnews24.com that no wheat allocations have been given so far, but it is expected to begin with the TR programme and might be given to other projects later