Bangladesh will buy 100,000 tonnes of 15 percent broken white rice from Vietnam at $525 a tonne, including cost, freight and liner out, as part of efforts to secure supplies of the staple, a senior food official said on Thursday. The price is less than its last purchase of same grade rice from Vietnam in January when Bangladesh paid $545 a tonne but higher than August price of $389 a tonne.
"We have already signed the deal with Vinafood 2 and shipment will start from mid-July," Ahmed Hossain Khan, director-general of the state grains buyer, told Reuters. Although Bangladesh is the world's fourth-biggest rice producer, with average annual output of 33 million tonnes, it has emerged as a major importer recently, including several government-to-government deals with Vietnam and Thailand, the world's top two exporters of the grain. Rice demand from Bangladesh has helped support Asia rice prices.
Bangladesh's imports of wheat and rice are set to reach a record 5.5 million tonnes in the year to June, with nearly 1.4 million tonnes of rice imported by the government alone to ward off domestic price rises. However, imports of rice are likely to drop in the coming fiscal year beginning on July 1. Early this month, the government started a drive to procure 600,000 tonnes of rice locally at 29 taka ($0.39). So far, 160,000 tonnes of rice has been procured, food officials said.
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