DHAKA: Bangladesh will import 100,000 tonnes of white rice from Myanmar at $442 a tonne in a state-to-state deal, the food minister said on Monday, as it grapples with depleted stocks and record domestic prices.

The decision comes after Bangladesh finalised a deal to import 250,000 tonnes of white rice at $453 a tonne from Cambodia, following a comparatively cheaper deal with Vietnam.

“It will take some time to complete formalities. Then shipment will start,” the minister, Qamrul Islam, told reporters.

However, the latest deal comes amid worsening ties between the two countries over the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Bangladesh, the world’s fourth biggest rice producer, has emerged as a major importer of rice after floods hit crops.

High demand from Bangladesh could lift Asian prices that have already hit multi-year highs in recent months.

The state grains buyer is issuing a series of tenders as it seeks to import 1.5 million tonnes of rice in the year to next June.

It has imported 200,000 tonnes of white rice at $430 a tonne and 50,000 tonnes of parboiled rice at $470 a tonne from Vietnam in a state-to-state deal.

The government started selling rice at a subsidised rate from this week while last month it cut a duty on imports of the grain for the second time in two months.

But prices of rice, a staple food for Bangladeshs 160 million people, did not budge, posing a problem for the government which faces a national election due next year.

The country produces around 34 million tonnes of rice annually but uses almost all its production to feed its population, and often requires imports to cope with shortages caused by floods or droughts.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2017