By Xinhua,
Dhaka : The Bangladesh caretaker government Tuesday imposed ban on export of rice for six months except aromatic varieties to lower prices of rice in the local market, said a senior official here.
“Export of all kinds of rice except aromatic varieties have been banned today,” a spokesman of the Commerce Ministry said Tuesday.
The ban came after Bangladesh’s Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) revealed last week that a group of exporters have cashed in on the government’s free rice export policy by shipping in record amount of the staple this fiscal year (July 2007-June 2008) despite scarcity at home.
“We have to take the decision as some exporters have been found exporting some non-aromatic varieties of rice despite scarcity at home,” Feroz Ahmed, commerce secretary, said.
Rice worth 372 million U.S. dollars was exported in the first eight months of the fiscal, up from 282 million dollars of the same period last fiscal, despite shortages at home that have pushed tens of millions of people on the verge of starvation.
Facing with one of the worst food crisis in history, Bangladesh imported rice worth a record 600 million dollars in the first eight months of the fiscal, which is up at least ten times than the same period last fiscal, pushing the country towards the biggest balance of payment crisis.
EPB said export of rice hit the highest monthly figure of 56 million dollars in February alone, at a time when the country was busy pleading with the Indian authorities to sell half a million tons of rice from its stock.
Rice prices have risen around 100 percent in the international market since the beginning of the year, amid acute shortages in major producing nations in the Asia-Pacific and Australia.
The price hike and shortages have forced top producers such as Thailand, Vietnam and India to temporarily ban export or put an “abnormally high” price-cap on export, forcing disaster-hit Bangladesh to scramble to secure supplies.