Bangladesh is finalising a purchase of 150,000 tonnes of rice from India’s NAFED, the NewDelhi-based state agency told Reuters, in what would be thefirst such bilateral deal in three years after floods in Bangladesh sent local prices to a record high.
India, the world’s biggest rice exporter, is offering asteep discount to supplies from rivals Thailand and Vietnam tocut its surplus after a bumper harvest.
“We are negotiating with Bangladesh,” said a spokesman for NAFED (the National Agricultural Cooperative MarketingFederation of India Ltd). “NAFED is in a position to supply upto 500,000 tonnes rice to Bangladesh.”
A senior official with Bangladesh’s food ministry said theycould buy 100,000 tonnes of parboiled rice and 50,000 tonnes ofwhite rice under a government-to-government deal.
India could sell parboiled rice at around $407 and whiterice at around $417 per tonne on a cost, insurance and freight (CIF) liner out basis, an Indian government source said. Therates are about a third cheaper than those from Thailand and Vietnam.
The entire shipment is likely to be made in the firstquarter of next year from the Haldia port in India’s easternstate of West Bengal, which borders Bangladesh, government official added.
Both the Indian and Bangladeshi government officials declined to be named as details are still being worked out.
Representatives for the trade and food ministries of India and Bangladesh did not immediately respond to requests forcomment.
Bangladesh, the world’s third-biggest rice producer with anoutput of almost 35 million tonnes a year, relies on importsfrom time to time to cope with shortages caused by naturaldisasters such as floods or drought.
Its state grains agency issued its first rice purchasetender in three years in November to boost local supplies. Thecountry of more than 160 million people could import as much as500,000 tonnes of rice in the year to June.
“Bilateral deals will accelerate India’s rice exports,” said B.V. Krishna Rao, president of the Indian Rice Exporters’Association. “The government should try to seal more such dealsas we have ample surplus for exports.”
