Bangladesh will import 150,000 tonnes of muriate of potash (MOP) fertiliser from Canada and Russia at a cost of Tk 7,087,504,490 (about Tk 708.75 crore), paid from the farm subsidy budget. The cabinet committee on government purchase, chaired virtually by finance minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury on Wednesday, 28 October, approved four import proposals through the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC).
Canada's Commercial Corporation will supply 80,000 tonnes in the seventh and eighth shipments of 40,000 tonnes each, for Tk 377.79 crore. Russia's Foreign Economic Corporation will supply 70,000 tonnes in the ninth and tenth shipments of 35,000 tonnes each, for Tk 330.97 crore. Both are priced at $382.38 a tonne, and each shipment may be up to 10 percent larger.
The agriculture ministry's target for 2026-27 is 716,000 tonnes of MOP through BADC. Imports of 320,000 tonnes from Canada and 280,000 tonnes from Russia had already been approved.
The same meeting approved buying 10 million new 30 kg jute sacks for storing grain in the coming aman procurement season, at Tk 64.42 crore. In the Directorate of Food's open tender, 41 firms submitted 1,014 bids; the sacks will come from the six lowest bidders at an average of about Tk 64.42 a sack, 1.574 percent above the official estimate.
The cabinet committee on economic affairs, also chaired by the finance minister, gave in-principle approval to take offers for government-to-government wheat imports from two US firms approved by US Wheat Associates, Agrocorp International and Louis Dreyfus Company, and to negotiate with the lowest bidder. Wheat now comes from the US under a five-year G2G deal with Agrocorp.
Potash supply before the rabi season and preparations for buying aman paddy both bear directly on farmers' fields and paddy prices. The reports were by Banglanews24's senior correspondent.
Photo: Harvesting in a haor of Sunamganj, Balaram Mahalder / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Banglanews24
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