The government is mulling to review the ban on exports of rice after businesses floated a proposal last week.
On Thursday (Apr 18), a delegation of the Bangladesh Auto Major and Rice Husking Mill Owners’ Association urged the government to review the ban during a meeting with Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi.
“We sought an end on the ban for the sake of the farmers as the country has seen a bumper rice production in the last two years, which we expect this year as well,” its General Secretary Layek Ali told Bangla Tribune.
According to him, mill owners will not be able to procure rice from farmers without clearing their loaded warehouses. “We have proposed exporting only 200,000 tonne out of the excess 5 million.”
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said that they will review the proposal for export.
“We will go through the matter meticulously. The production figures [given by mill owners] will be cross checked with the agriculture and food ministries. If there’s a surplus then we will consider it” he told the media after Thursday’s meeting.
Despite of bumper productions, the government maintains cautious stance over rice export due to possibilities of flash floods, like 2017, as well as for the more than 1.1 million Rohingya refugees living in the country, according to sources.
Moreover, the rice stock in the country is mostly with the mill owners and traders, not with the farmers, they say before adding the government apprehends the market to be destabilised once traders are allowed to export.
Wholesale prices of all varieties of rice went up by at least Tk 2 per kg in the beginning of the year.
Traders said then it was a good sign for the farmers as paddy price increased by over Tk 100 per maund (1 maund = 37.3242 kg) by the end of last year.



The government has set a target to procure 1.25 million tonne of rice this year.
Each kilogram of parboiled rice will be procured at Tk 36, sunned rice at Tk 35 and paddy at Tk 26.



Food Minister Shadhan Chandra Majumder told Bangla Tribune that they may procure beyond the target depending on the government warehouses’ capacity.
Between Apr 25 and Aug 31, the government will purchase 1 million tonne of parboiled rice, 150,000 tonne of sunned rice and 150,000 tonne of paddy.
The Bangladesh Rice Research Institute says the country’s rice production stood at 38.6 million tonne in 2017-18 fiscal.
Meanwhile, rice prices in India, the top exporter, has dipped on lower demand.
India’s 5 percent broken parboiled variety was quoted around $377-$380 per tonne, down from last week’s $387-$390, Reuters reported.
In Thailand, the world’s second-largest exporter, the benchmark 5-percent broken rice prices eased slightly to $393-$411 a tonne, free on board Bangkok, from $405-$410 last week, it said.
Bangladesh, traditionally the world’s fourth biggest rice producer, banned overseas shipments of some common rice varieties in May 2008 following a spike in domestic prices. It banned all rice exports a year later.
In 2017, the country was forced to massively increase imports to shore up domestic reserves after floods wrought havoc on local crops and pushed domestic rice prices to record highs, but domestic stocks have since greatly improved.