The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

Rice price in the international market is bound to fall in the wake of a good harvest, said economist and BRAC Executive Director Dr Mahabub Hossain.

He told BSS that as only seven per cent of the total global output goes into the international market the high prices caused by speculation by one or two countries should be difficult to sustain particularly in the wake of a good harvest in the last season.

Total global rice production, he said, stands around 430 million tons, of which 400 million tons is consumed including 28 million tons, sold in the international market, while the rest is accounted for seeds, feeds and wastes.

Dr Hossain said that it was due to speculation that the rice price shot up to 1,000 dollars a ton in April this year from 350 dollars in October last year.

In Bangladesh, he said, the price increase of 60 per cent in one year was abrupt and beyond the capacity of the poor to afford.

Like Bangladesh's Boro the output in other countries had been very good and it should be difficult for many countries to sell at the artificially high prices, he said.

Boro, he said, was a bumper crop due to special efforts by farmers.

He said that the private traders were buying rice at higher prices.

He said, "we suggested the government to procure in a big scale at higher prices to provide remunerative prices to the growers and sell at subsidised prices to benefit the poor."

He said that if the government would buy at Taka 32 and sell at Taka 25 it would have an impact .

Now, he said, it was advisable to import what as its price had fallen in the international market.