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Foodgrain import

Poor bids, high price lead to fresh tender

REAZ AHMAD
The government yesterday cancelled tenders floated late last month to import two lakh metric tons (MT) of grains. A new international bid will take place for purchase.
The cabinet committee on public purchase took the decision as only a few firms participated in the tender and quoted high price for the supply of one lakh MT of rice and an equal volume of wheat.
Despite strong lobbying by some pro-government suppliers, the cabinet committee headed by Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman took the decision to float a fresh tender, official sources told The Daily Star yesterday.
The committee's decision came in line with the recommendation by the inter-ministerial tender evaluation committee on Wednesday last.
But as the process to procure grains get delayed, food officials fear that the food reserve will remain
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vulnerable at the current 2.5 lakh MT -- six lakh MT down from the government-set critical food-security level.
Sources said four firms participated in the tender for supply of one lakh MT of wheat. Twelve more tender documents were dropped for supply of one lakh MT of rice.
After scrutiny, the authorities found only one proposal for wheat supply and three for rice 'responsive.'
But yesterday's meeting found that the lowest prices quoted by the firms for both rice and wheat were significantly higher -- $5 for rice and $25 for wheat -- than the prices some countries offered to the government last month.
These offers by the rice and wheat producing countries were rejected by the cabinet committee on the ground that their prices were higher than the international prices.
As a result, the government floated the tender on March 31 for import of grains.
As the import procedure gets delayed, food officials are trying to make the current domestic wheat procurement drive a success after the failure of the aman procurement drive.
The aman drive failed partly because of production shortfall in last aman season and a delayed start.