State-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) has issued a tender to import 25,000 tonnes of white sugar to meet domestic requirements, a TCB official said on Monday.
The tender will close on May 20, the official added.
Due to high international sugar prices, Bangladesh did not award three previous tenders to buy 25,000 tonnes, 15,000 tonnes and 10,000 tonnes of white sugar from March 2006,in which the lowest prices quoted were $478.85, $478.75 and $497 per tonne respectively on a cost & freight basis, the official said.
The government has not imported sugar through tender since the middle of last year.
Bangladesh's state and private sugar mills produced a total of 160,645 tonnes of sugar in 2004/05, against annual demand of nearly 1.2 million tonnes.