Bangladesh will import 100,000 tonnes of 15 percent broken rice from Vietnam's top rice exporter, Vinafood 2, at $389 per tonne in a government-to-government deal, a food official said on Friday. "The proposal has already been sent to the cabinet purchase committee for approval," the official said.
Last week Bangladesh signed another deal with the same company to buy a similar quantity of 15 percent broken rice at the same rate, and cargoes will reach port within 60 days, the official said. The government doubled its planned rice imports for this year to 600,000 tonnes after its wheat imports were hit by a spike in prices triggered by export curbs in the drought-ravaged Black Sea region.
Bangladesh's state grains buyer reissued a tender to buy 50,000 tonnes of wheat on Friday as the original deal was scrapped, a food official said. Deals earlier concluded by both the state buyer and private importers to ship around 345,000 tonnes of Black Sea wheat to Bangladesh have been cancelled so far.
In another tender to buy 30,000 tonnes of non-basmati parboiled rice that opened on Thursday, Indian firm M. Sons Group made the lowest offer of $477.51 a tonne including C&F, which was $33.51 per tonne higher than the country's last tender opened last week. Bangladesh, the world's fourth-biggest rice producer, harvested a record high rice crop of more than 34.45 million tonnes in the year to June, but the government failed to procure enough rice locally.
The government's food reserves have come under added pressure as it has started selling rice at subsidised rates to help the poor during the Muslim fasting month Ramadan and to contain food inflation, now running near 11 percent. Foodgrain stocks stand at 700,000 tonnes, well short of a target of 1.5 million tonnes.