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After eight and a half months, wheat imports from Russia started. A ship named MV Sealak-2 reached Chittagong port with about 52
thousand 845 tons of wheat from the Russian port. This wheat release started last
Thursday (October 13, 2022). Wheat has been imported by the Food Department.
This is the first shipment of five lakh tonnes of wheat that
the government is buying from Russia. The Cabinet Committee on Government
Procurement approved the purchase of 500,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia on
September 1. The food department contracts to purchase this wheat on a government-level contract basis (GtoG).
According to customs sources, the import price of the first shipment of wheat from Russia fell to $430 per ton. This wheat was exported by the Russian state-owned enterprise LLC OZK Trading.
According to Chittagong port and shipping agent sources, the
ship left Novorossiysk port in Russia on September 17. The ship reached the
waters of the port last Thursday. 31 thousand 707 tons of wheat will be
discharged from the ship at Chittagong port. The remaining 21 thousand 138 tons
will be discharged at Mongla port.
Md. Abdul Quader, Controller of Movement and Conservation of
the Food Department said on Friday that the evacuation of the ship, which is
located in Qutubdia, started on Thursday by small ships.
The last import of wheat from Russia was on January 27 this
year. Akiz Essential Limited imports a shipment of 10 thousand tons of wheat.
Wheat imports stopped when the Russia-Ukraine war broke out. This is the first
shipment to the port. The private sector has not yet started importing wheat
from Russia-Ukraine.
According to a source of traders, a private company has
opened a letter of credit for importing wheat from Russia. The shipment has not
yet reached the port.
Wheat is the second major food grain in Bangladesh after
rice. Most of the food other than rice is made from wheat. Common durum wheat
for making flour is the biggest import in the country. One of the sources of this wheat is Russia-Ukraine and India.
Before the Russia-Ukraine war, most wheat was imported from
Russia. In the fiscal year 2020-21, 27 percent of the total imports were
brought from the country.
It fell to six-and-a-half percent last fiscal year as
shipping rates rose and imports stopped after the war. Most of the demand for
wheat is met by imports. According to the Board of Revenue, the country
imported 62 lakh tonnes of wheat in the last financial year.
The wheat stock in the hands of the government is now the
lowest. The government is trying to increase the stock of wheat by importing.
As a part of this, the government imported about one lakh, five thousand tons
of wheat from Bulgaria at 460 dollars per ton. Wheat shipments from Bulgaria
are still being unloaded. Again, if the shipment of Russian wheat arriving at
the port is released, the wheat stock in the hands of the government will
increase. The remaining shipment of 450,000 tons from Russia is expected to
reach the country in December.
Source:
Online/SZK
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