Bangladesh will export between 50,000 to 100,000 tonnes of rice to Sri Lanka this year, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed has said.
Speaking at the inauguration of the 4th Agro Bangladesh Expo on Thursday, he said that cash incentives would be provided for exports of unconventional agriculture products.
Bangladesh has exported some amount of aromatic rice before, but this is first time such a large amount of rice would be exported.
The Sri Lankan High Commission had recently forwarded a government-to-government proposal through the foreign ministry to buy rice from Bangladesh. The country wants to import it through the Colombo sea port.
According to food ministry, the amount of rice stocked in Bangladesh till Aug was 1.1 million tonnes.
However, a statutory regulatory order (SRO) needs to be amended before exporting rice. The SRO barred exports of any type of rice except the aromatic ones until Jun 30, 2015.
“Bangladesh’s agriculture sector has a lot of potential. A lot of countries want to import products from Bangladesh,” Tofail told the inauguration ceremony.
Source: Bd news24
