Bangladesh to import 600,000 tonnes of rice.

The state buyer issued a tender to import 50,000 tonnes of parboiled rice. Its first such tender in many years, after flash floods hit fields about to be harvested, potentially wiping out 700,000 tonnes of crops. the state agency also planned to import rice through government-to-government deals with producers such as Thailand, Vietnam and India as importing via tenders is a lengthy process. The world’s fourth-biggest producer of rice with more than 30 million tonnes of rice, Bangladesh consumes almost all its production to feed its population. It often requires imports to cope with shortages caused by natural disasters such as floods and droughts. State rice reserves in government warehouses have fallen to around 350,000 tonnes, the lowest in six years.