Russia to supply 200,000 tonnes of wheat to Bangladesh by December

MOSCOW/DHAKA: Russia will supply up to 200,000 tonnes of milling wheat to Bangladesh between September and December, Russia's agriculture ministry said in a statement on Friday.

Bangladesh, South Asia's top wheat buyer, is battling to build up stocks of wheat and rice as floods damaged sowings earlier this year and current heavy monsoon rains are expected to affect production.

But tough state purchasing conditions and slow ship unloading in ports make trading houses less willing to sell the grain to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh's state grains agency confirmed the deal but did not disclose its price.

"We will import 200,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia in a state-to-state deal," Badrul Hasan, the head of the agency, told Reuters.

For Russia, the deal is well-timed as it needs to increase wheat exports this year due to a record crop of 78-79 million tonnes arriving on its market, testing the capacity of railroads and ports.

The deal was reached between Russian state firm Prodintorg and Bangladesh's agriculture ministry on Aug. 20-21, the Russian ministry said.

It did not say who would supply the wheat. A previous deal between the two countries for the same amount of wheat was also signed by Prodintorg, however the agreement was commercial and did not involve Russian state wheat stockpiles.

Bangladesh plans to increase wheat imports to 6.5 million tonnes in the 2017/18 marketing year, which started on July 1, from 5.8 million tonnes in the previous season.