Private sector Bangladeshi traders said on Saturday they planned to import half a million tonnes of sugar worth $2.38 billion from India, Thailand and Brazil in 2004.
"The consumption in last 20 months showed that Bangladesh will need to import at least half a million tonnes of sugar in the current calendar year," said Abul Basher Chowdhury, managing director of Masud and Brothers Limited, a leading sugar importer.
In the last 20 months the country consumed 1.1 million tonnes of sugar, of which 330,000 tonnes was produced locally, he said.
Bangladeshis consume around 660,000 tonnes of sugar a year.
Out of a target to produce 180,000 tonnes in the current season (November '03 to March '04), sugar mills until mid January produced only 65,000 tonnes, officials of the state-owned Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) said.
BSFIC manages the country's 15 sugar mills.
After eight years of state monopoly, Bangladesh government allowed the private sector to import sugar in June, 2002. It re-imposed the ban on private imports in March 2003, only to lift it again in August, in an effort to keep prices stable.
Traders said from August, the private sector has imported around 300,000 tonnes of sugar from India, Thailand and Brazil.
On Saturday four ships carrying 40,000 tonnes of imported sugar were either discharging or were waiting for berths at the country's main Chittagong port, port officials said.
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