Govt to import rice from Vietnam, fertilizer from Morocco

The government has approved the import of 1 lakh metric tons of rice from Vietnam and 30 thousand tons of TSP fertilizer from Morocco. The total cost of this will be 739 crore 62 lakh 50 thousand taka.

The proposal was approved at the meeting of the Advisory Council Committee on Government Procurement which was held under the chairmanship of Finance Adviser Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed in the Advisory Council Committee Room at the Cabinet Division Conference at the Secretariat on Tuesday.

According to the meeting sources, in view of the proposal of the Ministry of Food, the interim government has approved the proposal to import 1 lakh metric tons of Atap rice from Vietnam at the Government-to-Government (G2G) level under the Food Directorate. The cost of buying this rice from Vietnam Southern Food Corporation of Vietnam will be 578 crore 58 lakh 50 thousand taka (excluding CD VAT). The cost of rice per metric ton will be 474.25 US dollars.

In the meeting, a proposal was made by the Ministry of Agriculture to import 30,000 tons of TSP fertilizer from Morocco under a state-level agreement. This proposal has also been approved by the Advisory Council Committee. The cost of importing 30,000 tons of TSP fertilizer from Morocco will be 13.2 million dollars. Its equivalent in Bangladeshi currency is 161.4 million taka. The price of TSP fertilizer per ton has been estimated at 440 dollars.