Bangladesh not worried over food safety!

Following Russia's exit from the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI), India has imposed a ban on export of all types of rice except aromatic Basmati. If the two warring nations are responsible for producing and exporting the lion's share of wheat, staple for non-rice eating people in wide swathes of Europe, Africa and America, rice is the staple food for the majority populations in many parts of the world, mainly in Asia and Latin America. 

With Russia declaring that any ship bound for or leaving Ukranian ports across the Black Sea would be considered war ships, the supply chain of foods from Ukraine will be drastically crippled. Further sanctions by America and its allies in Europe on Russia following its abrogation of the grain agreement will also handicap that country's food and fertiliser export to the Middle East and Africa which have overwhelming dependence on food grains from the two countries. 

Wheat price has already started rising in Europe. There is no reason why rice prices will not do so. India is the top rice exporter with 40 per cent share in the global market. Other exporters have no capacity to replenish the void left by Indian export ban. Indian move, the authorities there claim, comes in order to ensure that availability of rice is not hampered and prices are kept low in the domestic market. 

Whatever it is, the fact remains that the world is going to witness another vicious round of price spiral of food grains. When the governments of food-deficient countries and the UN organisations are seriously concerned about the food crisis staring in the faces of millions of people, the authorities in Bangladesh assure that there is no possibility of any food shortage in the country. In fact, the food minister claims, the stock is overflowing so much so that to make room for storage, old stocks are being used for three months' ration at a time. 

Well, the police, ansar and defence services are the beneficiaries of the rationing system. There is no general rationing system in the country. Under the safety net programmes, the vulnerable groups are provided with food support. Will they also be given three months' allocation at a time? The minister reveals that the stock currently is 2.0 million metric tonnes of food grain. Boro and Aman recorded bumper harvests and on top of this, 1.05 million tonnes of rice has been imported, of which, 0.6 million by the government and the rest by private importers. Private importers were given permission to import 1.8 million tonnes of rice and they have already imported 0.45 million.

When the food minister has expressed his optimism and confidence in so exuberant a manner, the food secretary has portrayed a slightly different picture. He also repeats the fact of good harvest of Boro but is not quite sure if Aman yield can rule out the need for import. He makes the matter of import conditional. If Aman harvest might have suffered for some reasons, Bangladesh may need to import some rice. In that case, the alternative sources will be Vietnam and Myanmar. 

Overall, the food scenario the authorities paint here is rosy, no doubt. But past experience does not make many convinced of food safety. When India just banned export of broken rice last year, its impact on rice market in Bangladesh was quite adverse. It also happened in the past when the authorities assured that the country would not be affected by Indian ban but in really it had to frenetically look for import from other countries and obviously at much higher costs. 

Then enough stock is not a guarantee for the poor and low-income groups' access to food. If rice price soars in International market, traders' syndicates will speed up the process many times more to take the price level beyond common people's reach. If there is enough stock, make sure that the manipulative market does not deprive the lower income people of the staple on their plates. Again, rice is not the only staple, people need coarse flour from wheat. If that becomes dearer, it will put extra pressure on rice.

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