Ali Imam Majumder, food adviser, said that the collection of Aman rice will start from November 17.
He said this at the end of the coordination meeting on the food situation in the meeting room of the Food Directorate on Thursday afternoon.
He said, ‘This year there has been a bumper crop of Aman in the northern region. It is Allah’s mercy and infinite mercy. Retention capacity is satisfactory. These will be brought to Dhaka’s Tejgaon or other areas for additional food storage.’
In the meeting, the advisor on food import said, ‘Some food imports are under process. LC has already been opened for importing one and a half lakh tonnes of food. I am seeing good interest from neighboring countries. As much as the price of rice has increased till the last 1 week, it has remained stable for now. I hope that the price of Aman rice will come down in the market.
He also said that care should be taken to ensure that farmers get fair prices. They cannot be discouraged.
In response to a question from reporters about the target of food grain import, the director general of the food department said that the target of rice procurement is 5.5 lakh metric tons, atapchal 1 lakh metric tons and paddy 3.5 lakh metric tons. The price of rice has been fixed at Tk 47 per kg, atap rice at Tk 46 per kg and paddy at Tk 33 per kg.
In response to a question from journalists about the syndicate of mill owners, the adviser said that those who do syndicate will be blacklisted and no contract will be made with them in the future. In this case, the Ministry will be careful and will take punishment if necessary. Now small mills are transforming into big mills. In this case the contract will decrease. Mills today are using different technologies.
Help the government with information, the government will take administrative action, he told mediapersons about the suffering.
Regarding whether the corporate group controls the rice market, the food advisor said, rice is not dependent on import, the demand and production of rice are close.
In response to the question of how many people the government has allowed to import rice, the director general of the food department said that the government has given permission to 134 traders to import 10.52 lakh metric tons of rice.
In the event, the Secretary of the Ministry of Food. Masudul Hasan and Director General of Food Directorate along with senior officials of the Directorate were present.
(Dhaka Times/14 November/MR)
Source: www.dhakatimes24.com
