Despite the record amount of food grain stocks, the country is witnessing an abnormal price hike of rice.
At present, the country has a stock of 17.01 lakh tons of rice in its stock.
Leaders of the sector are saying that the illegal storage of rice is the main reason behind the rice price hike.
Bangladesh Auto Rice Mill Owners Association president AKM Khorshed Alam Khan while talking to Bangladesh Post said, “Many businessmen, to earn more profit, have kept rice in their respective rice and husk mills illegally. They are waiting for when the government will allow importing of rice and will start supplying from their stock at a higher price.”
“The government shall continue search operations in the country’s all rice mills so that none can keep illegal stock of rice. This will bring the supply of rice back to normal in the market,” he added.
He further said that rice from the last boro season is still available in the country. Those who were allowed to import rice from abroad should be brought under surveillance as imported rice was not found in the country’s local market.
According to the daily food grain report of the Ministry of Food, the total food grain stock in the country on Wednesday was above 20 lakh tons. Of this, the stock of rice is 16.94 lakh tons, wheat is 2.77 lakh tons, and paddy is 49000 tons.
At this time last year, the amount of food grains stored in the government warehouses was 7.21 lakh tons. Of this, the stock of rice was 5.37 lakh tons, which was the lowest in-stock in the country.
Citing the current stocks are satisfactory, the food ministry report said that Aman paddy, rice, and wheat procurement activities were being conducted from domestic sources, and stocks of food grains were recorded due to imports of rice from abroad.
Despite Aman and Boro's satisfactory production it was found that the price of old rice had gone up by at least Tk 2 per kg. This came to light while visiting some rice markets across the capital.
According to rice traders, good quality fine rice was being sold at Tk 68 to Tk 70 per kg; which was Tk 65 to Tk 66 a month ago.
Halim Enterprise Proprietor Md. Halim who has been doing rice business at Rampura told this journalist, “From January there was a trend of fine quality rice price increasing. A sack of 50 kg rice increased from Tk 50 to Tk 100.”
However, it has also been informed that coarse rice prices remain stable.
In a recent meeting, Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder has expressed his displeasure over the high price of rice despite the record amount of stockpiling at a meeting held at the Rajshahi Deputy Commissioner's Office.
He said, Last time, paddy was damaged by Cyclone Amphan. Our collection was not adequate. The minimum stock was four lakh tonnes. At that time also the price of rice was not allowed to increase. This time bumper crop has been harvested in Boro as well as a bumper crop in Aman. National reserves are the best of all time, more than 2 million tons. Now the price of rice is rising. It's ridiculous."
In the recent D-8 conference, agriculture minister Dr. Abdur Razzaque had also expressed satisfaction over the food grain stock. But he identified that the high price of wheat has affected the rice price in the country.
To safeguard the low-earning people of the country the government is selling rice and wheat through OMS.
In this regard, the Consumers Association of Bangladesh president Ghulam Rahman told Bangladesh Post, "If the government increased OMS selling capacity it will affect the overall market situation. A record amount of food grains stock can help to face any uncertainty in the country."
The government has set a target of procuring 3 lakh tonnes of Aman paddy and 5 lakh tonnes of boiled Aman rice from domestic sources by February 28 in the current Aman season. Of this, 4.5 lakh tonnes of rice has been collected till last January.