Bangladesh has offered over $40 a tonne more to Indian co-operatives to import 2.5 lakh tonnes of parboiled rice in a government-to-government deal compared with prices quoted by the private trade in a global import tender. The import deal will be through NCCF (National Cooperative Consumers Federation) and Kendriya Bhandar in two tranches with Dhaka getting rice at $443 and $443.5 a tonne each, according to media report.

Two Indian co-operatives will export 2 lakh tonnes of rice under government-to-government deal to Bangladesh, which will also buy another 50,000 tonnes from private traders in India. The G2G deal has taken place at 11% higher than the tender price of the private trader.

“The two co-operatives will get a huge premium of $40/tonne over the private trade, which will earn a huge profit for the government. The private trade has been in losses by undercutting each other in fierce competition,” said an exporter, who requested not to be identified.

New Delhi-based Kendriya Bhandar (Central Government Employees Consumer Co-operative Society) will supply 1 lakh tonnes of non-Basmati par-boiled rice within 75 days from the date of opening of letter of credit at $ 433.50/tonne. Kendriya Bhandar will have to ship 70% of the total contracted quantity by ship and the remaining 30% by train.
National Cooperative Consumers Federation of India will supply another 1 lakh tonnes of par-boiled rice to Bangladesh at $ 433.60/tonne within 70 days from the date of opening of the letter of credit.

According to trade sources, Raipur-based rice exporter has bagged the tender to supply 50,000 tonnes of rice to Bangladesh at $ 393.30 per tonnes.

India has banned export of broken rice on concerns about its kharif rice output, while it has put a duty of 20% on export of rice.

Meanwhile, the rice exporters from India had requested the commerce ministry to take up the issue of transparency in Government-to-Private (G2P) trade with Bangladesh during a delegation level discussion of commerce minister Piyush Goyal with Bangladesh commerce minister Tipu Munshi.

“Many times, we face rejection when our goods reach Bangladesh ports. In case of the trade taking place through the land border, our trucks get stranded for 4/5 days to get clearance to cross the border,” said another rice exporter, who did not wish to be identified.

It is heard the term ‘Myanmar-Bangladesh rice diplomacy’ recently through media platforms. The use of rice as a diplomatic tool has received global media coverage (The Sun Daily, Modern Diplomacy, Eurasia Review, Pakistan Today, Burma News International, Counter Review) despite Myanmar-Bangladesh tensions. There is nothing new to say about the influence of food on politics. It is really appreciable that Myanmar and Bangladesh have already started rice diplomacy to mend the ties. Now, time will say how fruitful Myanmar-Bangladesh rice diplomacy would be.

Source : thenewsmill.com/ For More Details