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Govt to allow rice export amid supply glut

Reeayet Ullah Mirdha
The government will soon start allowing export of rice to create a balance in supply and demand and ensure fair prices of the staple in the domestic market, Commerce Secretary Md Mofizul Islam said yesterday.
"We have decided to allow the export of rice. The millers have also agreed as the growers are not getting proper prices due to oversupply,” he told The Daily Star over phone.
The government wants to export the coarse variety of rice as its production and supply is higher than that of the finer ones, he said.
Moreover, the finer varieties are higher in demand among the middle class and allowing its export might lead to shortages in the domestic market, Islam said.
Following bumper production in the boro season, growers have been
complaining of not getting fair prices, prompting the government to give go-ahead to rice export, he said.
"So, we are taking a few more days to decide which quality of rice should be exported."
The quantity that can be exported will be fixed in consultation with the food ministry once a clear picture of the existing stocks is available.
Various estimates show that producing one maund of paddy cost farmers Tk 960 on an average, including family labour, interest on working capital and lease or rent of land.
But the sales prices of per maund of paddy recorded at local markets hovered between Tk 550 and Tk 600.
In the boro season, farmers cultivated 49.33 lakh hectares of land around the country, according to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE). The bumper production in the current boro and last aman seasons played a vital role in pulling down the prices.
In the last aman season, rice production stood at 1.53 crore tonnes, exceeding the target by 13 lakh tonnes. The total production in 2017-18 was 3.63 crore tonnes, DAE data showed. Bangladesh consumes 3.52 crore tonnes of rice per year, meaning there is a surplus, the US Department of Agriculture said.
According to the Directorate General of Food, Bangladesh has the capacity to store 20.23 lakh tonnes of rice. Under an ongoing food grain procurement programme, the government intends to buy only 1.5 lakh tonnes of paddy from farmers, which is less than 1 percent of the around 1.96 crore tonnes that are estimated to be produced this boro season.