The Sri Lankan government has expressed its interest to procure 50,000 metric tonnes of rice from Bangladesh, revealed Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed on Wednesday.
“At present, we have 1 lakh metric tonnes of surplus rice. The Sri Lankan government has showed its interest to procure 50,000 tonnes through government-government arrangement,” he said.
Tofail was talking to reporters after a meeting with Russian Ambassador in Dhaka Alexander A Nikolaev at the Secretariat.
The Commerce Minister said though there had been a food crisis in the country when it had only 7.5 crore people, now there is no such crisis despite the fact that the country has 16 crore people.
Bangladesh has so far exported only aromatic rice in small quantities. In the last two fiscal years, export of aromatic rice amounted to Tk 77 crore, according to government statistics.
Senior Commerce Secretary Hedayet Ullah Al Mamun was also present at the meeting.
Source: UNB