Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has sought assistance from the International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD) to boost the production of wheat and edible oil in Bangladesh  to reduce its export dependency for the two items. The assistance was sought when IFAD President Alvaro Lario met her at the FAO headquarters,  Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told reporters after the meeting on Monday (July 24, 2023). Read: Bangladesh signs agreement with WFP to expand school feeding programme Hasina also asked the IFAD to help Bangladeshi small agro-enterprises in marketing their goods and help the country build an efficient food storage system. Also on Monday the prime minister asked the World Food Programme (WFP) to raise funds for Bangladesh particularly displaced Rohingyas who took shelter in Bangladesh as per capita fund for Rohingya declined to US$ 8 from US$ 12. She made the call when WFP Executive Director Cindy Hensley McCain met her at the FAO Headquarters on Monday. Hasina said Bangladesh has successfully raised food production thanks to her government's taking various steps in this field. Read: PM Hasina offers Nepal use of Payra port during meeting with Nepalese counterpart in Rome Bangladesh is in a good position in producing not only crops but also fish and other foods, she said. Cindy Hensley McCain is the wife of former US presidential candidate John McCain who adopted a three-month Bangladeshi girl in the early 1990s.  Meanwhile, the prime minister along with other heads of government and states attended a reception hosted by Director General of Food and Agriculture Organization Qu Dongyu at the FAO headquarters.

Three people were arrested by Chuadanga Sadar Police over putting sand and stones in the same truck carrying government wheat consignment. A case has been filed by Sadar Upazila food inspector and officer-in-charge of Chuadanga Sadar Food Warehouse, Nazrul Islam, with Chuadanga Sadar Police Station against 12 people and three organizations. The organizations are: Jonaki Paribahan, Sarkar Enterprise and Sunrise Jute Traders. All the wheat has been unloaded from 6 trucks but 3 tons and 771 kg of wheat were missing, and we recovered 1488 kg of sand from the trucks, said Nazrul Islam. Till now, police arrested three helpers of the trucks. The arrestees are helpers Rabiul Islam, Hridoy and Hossain Ali. Hasanuzzaman, sub-inspector of Chuadanga Sadar Police Station, confirmed the matter and said that a case has been filed by the Sadar Upazila food inspector, claiming that the government wheat consignment arriving on Monday night was short of 3771 kg of wheat. An operation is underway to catch the rest of those involved, the sub-inspector added. Additional District Commissioner (General) Nazmul Hamid Reza, also convener of the investigation committee of the district administration, said that they primarily think the truck drivers and helpers are involved with the manipulation. According to the agreement, 300 metric tons of wheat were to be sent to Chuadanga Food Warehouse through Sarkar Enterprise, Jonaki Paribhan and Sunrise Jute Traders transport contractor. Accordingly, the first consignment of 100 metric tons of wheat arrived last Friday. On Sunday morning, when the second shipment of 100 metric tons of wheat arrived, 7 sacks filled with sand were found on a truck. Later, while unloading the other trucks, 28 sacks filled with sand were found.

Bangladesh Bank has instructed banks to keep a minimum LC margin (cash advance) for importing rice and wheat, in order to keep their market prices at a tolerable level. Banking regulation and policy department of Bangladesh Bank issued a circular in this regard – with immediate effect – today and sent it to top executives of all banks. Read more: Bangladesh Bank allows LCs to import commodities for Ramadan The circular instructed that banks should kept LC margin at the minimum level, depending on the bank-client relationship. “Rice, wheat and crops prices are seeing an upward trend, owing to the disruption in the global supply chain caused by the Russia-Ukraine war. As a result, the transport cost of global commodities has gone up, affecting prices in the local market,” the central bank circular added. Read more: Bangladesh wants to buy sugar, wheat, soybean oil from Brazil To keep the import and supply channel smooth for rice and wheat, Bangladesh Bank asked banks to keep a minimum LC margin. The central bank also directed banks to take a minimum cash advance from importers while opening LCs for a number of essential commodities in order to keep their prices at a tolerable level during Ramadan. The demand for edible oil, lentils, onion, spices and dates usually goes up during Ramadan. As a result, the prices of the items also increase.

Bangladesh has shown interest to import sugar, wheat and soybean oil from Brazil. This was conveyed to newly appointed Ambassador of Brazil to Bangladesh Paulo Fernando Dias Feres when he met Shahriar Alam, state minister for foreign affairs, on Monday at his office in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They discussed the possibility of investing in the fields of high breed cows, poultry, poultry feed and fisheries in Bangladesh. The state minister also expressed hope that Brazil would facilitate Bangladesh’s initiative to have preferential trade agreement with the MERCOSUR countries. Read more: It’s my strong hope to see free, fair election in Bangladesh: Ambassador Naoki The Brazilian envoy said that during his tenure he would like to work on introducing Bangladesh better to the Brazilians, work intensely to strengthening people-to-people and business-to-business contacts and widen trade relations with Bangladesh. Ambassador Feres appreciated Bangladesh’s economic strides in the last one decade. Referring to his recent visit to Brazil, Shahriar thanked the Brazilian government for concluding visa exemption agreement for diplomatic and official passports holders and MoUs between Foreign Service Academy and Bangladesh and Rio Branco Institute of Brazil. He also mentioned that three business MoUs with the apex Chambers in Brazil were important step stone towards a greater commercial cooperation between the two friendly countries. Shahriar congratulated him on the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Brazil. He also congratulated the newly elected President of Brazil Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva on his remarkable victory. Read more: Japan wants "strategic" partnership with Bangladesh through practical cooperation The state minister said Bangladesh looks forward to working with the new administration to further strengthening its political and trade relations. The ambassador expressed his country’s keen interest to work with Bangladesh closely on the issues of mutual benefits in the bilateral and multilateral forums.

A Liberian cargo ship carrying 52,500 tonnes of wheat from Ukraine has docked at Chattogram port for the first time since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. Magnum Fortune arrived at the outer anchorage of the port on Wednesday evening, Abdul Quader, food controller (storage and movement) of Chattogram division, told UNB Thursday. The cargo ship will move to the silo jetty for releasing the food grain after the testing of samples, he added. Read: Cargo vessel carrying Indian transit container arrives in Chattogram port The government bought the wheat under its government-to-government (G2G) agreements with Russia and Ukraine after India turned down Bangladesh's request for wheat import. Earlier, as part of the agreements, Bangladesh already received more than one lakh tonnes of wheat from Russia in two shipments.

Bangladesh's Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi has said traders have started importing wheat from Canada and other countries after the closure of the Ukraine-Russia market due to the ongoing war. While briefing reporters, he said the wheat issue was raised at the fourth meeting of the task force on reviewing commodity prices and market conditions at the Secretariat on Thursday (November 03, 2022). “One of the major traders said one of his shipments of 55,000 tons of wheat was stuck at Turkey port but it has now started for Bangladesh. As Ukraine was our main supplier of wheat, the price might be higher for importing from Canada to meet demands for now,” he said. Read more: Govt to import 500,000 mt wheat Russia, 330,000 mt of rice from India, Vietnam Tipu Munshi said there is a little shortfall in the amount of wheat to be imported and supply will normalize if Ukraine and Russia lift the ban on export. The wheat being imported from Canada is also of good quality, he added. Regarding the price hike of pulses by Tk 10 per kg in the last few days, the minister said, impacted by the global price hike the pulse supply has declined a bit.  “The Tariff Commission will look into this and see if the price increase is reasonable,” he added. Read more: Russia keen to export 3 lakh mts wheat to Bangladesh He also said due to rising dollar prices, Bangladesh is not getting the benefit of falling global prices of rod, and cement at the moment. “People's main focus is on food. If the food production is right, compromises can be made in other sectors,” Bangladesh's commerce minister said.

The government will start open market sale (OMS) of whole-wheat flour packets across the country from October 1, Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said today (September 13, 2022). The process of packaging whole-wheat flour for OMS has already started, he said at the ‘BSRF Dialogue’, organised by Bangladesh Secretariat Reporters Forum (BSRF) at the Secretariat. “Packed whole-wheat flour may cost a little more. However, it will be sold at half the price of the flour that is being sold in the market,” he added. Read:OMS will continue till rice market is stable: Food Minister “We will allocate one tonne of whole-wheat flour per day to dealers in districts and city corporations for sale from October 1,” said the minister. Besides, the shipping of imported wheat has also started, he added.

Russian Ambassador to Bangladesh Alexander Vikentyevich Mantytskyi on Thursday expressed his country’s interest to export three lakh metric tons of wheat to Bangladesh. Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder thanked the Ambassador for such interest , saying that wheat export by Russia will play an important role in strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries. During the meeting, the two discussed various issues, including Bangladesh’s economic progress, expansion of trade and businesses between the two countries and wheat export from Russia. “Bangladesh and Russia have a wonderful relation. This relation is resulting into increased trade and investments between the two countries,” Sadhan said. Read: No need to import wheat before August, says food secretary The Minister recalled with gratitude Russia’s assistance in rebuilding Bangladesh’s economy and infrastructure both during and after the Liberation War. Md Ismail Hossain, Secretary of the Food Ministry, Md Shakhawat Hossain, Director General (DG) of the Food Directorate, and other high-ups of the Food Ministry were present during the meeting.

The price of wheat has gone down by Tk4-5 per kilogram as supply issues eased on the back of India resuming exports through the Hili land port in Dinajpur. The traders said they bought wheat at Tk36-37 per kg on Saturday, which was Tk 40 -41 per kg last week. Mustafijur Rahman, general secretary of the Hili land port export-import group, told UNB that the price of wheat decreased due to increased supply recently. India imposed an embargo on wheat export to maintain supply of the food grains in their domestic market on May 13.  The wheat import allowed by India under the previous LCs since May 29 this year. The importers who opened LCs to import wheat through railway containers now have to import it by road due to some problems with the railway line,  Mustafijur    said. The traders said the price of wheat increased to Tk1600 per maund, from Tk950 only before the Ukraine-Russia war.    One maund equals more or less 40kg. Bangladesh’s second staple is wheat and the annual consumption of these grains is nearly 8.5 million tonnes, which is increasing by 5 to 6 percent per year. Read: Govt constructing modern warehouse to store wheat in Chattogram Until January of fiscal year 2021-22, India supplied 66 percent of the wheat Bangladesh imported. Of the rest, 15 percent was from Ukraine, 7 percent from Russia, 6 per cent from Canada, and 5 percent from Australia.

After banning wheat exports, India has put curbs on exports of wheat flour and other related products to curb rising domestic prices. The curbs will come into effect from July 12, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has said in a notification. "Global supply disruptions in wheat and wheat flour have created many new players and have led to price fluctuations and potential quality-related issues. Therefore, it is imperative to maintain the quality of wheat flour exports from India," the notification said. Also read:  Russia offers to sell 2 lakh metric tons of wheat to Bangladesh: Food minister 'The export policy of wheat flour (atta) remains ‘Free’ but exports will be subject to the recommendation of the inter-ministerial committee (IMC) on export of wheat," the DGFT notification added. The move comes in the wake of domestic wheat flour prices shooting up since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February this year. In May, India banned wheat exports. Also read: Tipu discounts wheat crisis amid rising price India is the world's second-biggest wheat producer. And neighbouring Bangladesh is India's top importer of wheat. India exported 7 million tonnes of wheat in the 2021-22 financial year.