India Offers 200,000T Of Rice To BD At $547/T.

India, the world's second largest producer of rice and wheat, has offered to export 200,000 tonnes of parboiled rice to Bangladesh at $547 a tonne, including cost, freight and liner out, a senior food official said on Friday.

"We received the offer from State Trading Corporation of India. But we may seek some clarification on the price as the godown (silo) price is around $446 a tonne," Ahmed Hossain Khan, director-general of the state grains buyer, told Reuters.

India allowed exports of 300,000 tonnes of non-basmati rice and 200,000 tonnes of wheat to neighbouring Bangladesh last August though it had put overseas sales of the two staples on hold since 2007.

But bumper crops and overflowing storage could prompt India to allow exports of one million tonnes of wheat and rice shor t ly. Although Bangladesh is the world's fourth-biggest rice producer, with average annual output of 33 million tonnes, it has emerged as a major importer recently, concluding several government-to-government deals with Vietnam and Thailand, the world's top two exporters of the grain.

Rice demand from Bangladesh has helped support Asian rice prices.

Bangladesh's imports of wheat and rice are set to reach a record 5.5 million tonnes in the year to June, with nearly 1.4 million tonnes of rice imported by the government alone to ward off domestic price rises.

However, imports of rice are likely to drop in the coming fiscal year beginning on July 1. reuters

Source : dailytimes.com.pk