The Food Ministry has given approval to 380 private organisations to import 10 lakh tons of rice.

The government has permitted 125 companies to import a total of 246,000 tonnes of rice in order to cool down the domestic market for the staple grain in Bangladesh.

The government yesterday approved the import of 50,000 tonnes of rice from India in order to increase the country’s food stock and control spiralling prices.

Rice prices have gone up as millers and traders hiked prices banking on the government decision to raise import duty on the cereal to 28 percent from 2 percent, say market insiders.

The government's food stock saw a rise this year compared to the same period last year. This was mainly due to a significant

Bangladesh signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Thailand to import up to 10 lakh metric tonnes of rice each year till 2021.

Bangladesh signed an agreement with Cambodia to purchase 1 million tonnes of rice within the next five years, officials say.

Food Minister Qamrul Islam has rubbished reports of “low food stock”, at a time when Bangladesh is importing rice following a price flare and market instability. He has categorically denied to share information on current food reserve and has drawn attention to future plans of food stocking instead.