Wednesday, 24th December 2014
CHITTAGONG, Dec 26: A vessel with the first consignment of Bangladesh rice will leave Chittagong port for Colombo tomorrow (Saturday), sources said.
An official of Chittagong Port Authority said that the loading of 12,500 tonnes of rice on MV Banglar Kakoli of Bangladesh Shipping Corporation will be completed tonight (Friday night).
The ship is scheduled to sail for Sri Lanka on Saturday afternoon. Some 12,500 tonnes of boiled rice will be shipped in the first consignment while another consignment of 12,500 tonnes will be loaded into another vessel within a few days.
The cargo has been loaded on to the vessel at jetty no 3 of the seaport. The loading of rice started on December 11, the port official said, adding that the vessel will sail for Colombo on Saturday afternoon.
Controller of Food (movement and maintenance) in Chittagong region Md Zahirul Islam said that Bangladesh government signed an agreement on December 3 with the government of Sri Lanka for exporting 50,000 tonnes of rice to Sri Lanka.
In the first phase, 25,000 tonnes of rice will be shipped to Sri Lanka in two consignments while the rest 25,000 tonnes will be shipped later.
Bangladesh had earlier exported aromatic rice to other countries in small quantities but this is for the first time that the country is exporting rice in bulk quantity as it is self-sufficient in rice production now.
The country had a stock of 1.10 million tonnes of rice in storages ready at hand until August 2014, an addition of 0.25 million tonnes to the amount of the same period last year.
"So there is sufficient food in stock in the country, as per food ministry statistics," the controller said.
However, though the public sector import of rice had been negligible since last fiscal (2013-14), the import of the same by the public sector has been on the rise during the period.
The private sector imported 371,000 metric tonnes of rice during the last fiscal and the import of the country’s main staple until December 22 this fiscal was 454,000 tonnes.
From : http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2014/12/27/72943
