Govt to allow pvt sector to export coarse rice: Tofail

The government has decided in principle to allow private sector businesses to export coarse variety of rice as the country achieved production of the crop higher than the demand, said commerce minister Tofail Ahmed on Tuesday.
At present, businesses are allowed to export only aromatic rice while the export of coarse rice by the private sector has remained banned for the last few years.
‘Recently at a meeting held at the food ministry, we have decided to export the surplus rice and the commerce ministry started to explore markets in Africa and other countries,’ he said.
According to Tofail Ahmed there were 30-40 lakh tonnes of surplus coarse variety of rice and if it is possible to export the crop, farmers would get price benefit.
‘Recently, a private company came to the ministry for approval of rice export. We assured them and asked them to take preparation for export,’ the commerce minister said.
Tofail said that African countries import rice from India and Bangladesh is also trying to export the item in that market.
For the first time, in financial year 2014-15 the government exported 50,000 tonnes of coarse rice to Sri Lanka on a trial basis.
Some companies, however, have been exporting aromatic rice with the permission of the commerce ministry for the last couple of years.
Official data of commerce ministry showed that the country produced 3.47 crore tonnes of rice in the financial year 2014-15 against annual demand of 3.28 crore tonnes.
Surplus of local rice was 18.61 lakh tonnes while 10.84 lakh tonnes of rice were imported in the FY 2014-15, data showed.
Tofail said that the government announced to procure 6 lakh tonnes of rice and 7 lakh tonnes of paddy from the farmers this boro season but there was no sufficient space in the government warehouses to stock the collection. ‘We want to diversify our export basket,’ he said.
On the total export earnings of the country, the commerce minister said that earnings in FY 2016 would surpass the government set target of US$ 33.50 billion and the amount might exceed US$ 34 billion.
Export earnings in coming years would increase more as the government decided to provide 15 per cent cash incentive for furniture export, 10 per cent for plastic product and 20 per cent for diversified jute products, Tofail said.
The government took the initiative to reduce dependence on limited export items, he said.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net