Putting Aside The Rohingya Issue, Bangladesh Imports 100 Thousand Tons Of Rice From Myanmar

Illustration. (Photo: Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Bangladesh is setting aside rifts caused by the Rohingya refugee crisis and will buy 100,000 tons of rice from Myanmar as the government seeks to address a staple food shortage for Bangladesh's more than 160 million people.

High rice prices pose problems for the Dhaka government, which is stepping up efforts to replenish reserves that were depleted after last year's floods damaged crops and triggered price hikes.

Bangladesh will import white rice under an intergovernmental agreement at a price of US $ 485 (around Rp. 6.8 million) per tonne, including costs, insurance and shipping.

"Our top priority is to reduce the price of rice," the secretary of the Bangladesh Food Ministry, Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum, told Reuters, quoted by Antara, Sunday, January 24.

He added that the government could purchase as much as 10 million tonnes while private traders were allowed to buy another 10 million tonnes in the year to June. The agreement will be signed soon and rice will be delivered in April in stages, he said.

Bangladesh also bought 150,000 tonnes of rice from India's state-owned company, NAFED, in an intergovernmental agreement, while it has issued a series of tenders to buy the grain.

"We can buy more rice from India in an interstate agreement," Khanum said, adding that the Ministry of Food was in talks with several other Indian state agencies.

Bangladesh, traditionally the third largest rice producer in the world with around 35 million tonnes per year, uses almost all of its production to provide food for its people. The country still imports frequently to cope with food shortages caused by floods or drought.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh has clashed with Myanmar over the problem of the one million Rohingya refugees who have so far been in camps in southern Bangladesh.

Most of the Rohingya, who are Muslim, fled Myanmar in 2017 as a result of a military-led crackdown, which United Nations investigators say was carried out with "genocidal intent", a statement Myanmar denies.