Amid disruption to wheat supplies from the Black Sea region and rising prices on the world market, Bangladesh has again begun importing wheat from India, the US news outlet Bloomberg reported on Wednesday (September 23).
According to the report, India eased its restrictions on wheat exports somewhat at the end of August. Bangladeshi importers have since booked more than 200,000 tonnes of wheat from the country.
This is the first time since 2022 that Bangladesh has bought wheat from India on a large scale.
The Russia-Ukraine war still causes various obstacles to shipping grain from the Black Sea region, one of the world’s main wheat-exporting regions. Supply problems there therefore affect wheat prices on the international market.
Bangladesh needs to import more than 7 million tonnes of wheat a year. Before India stopped wheat exports four years ago, Bangladesh sourced 70 percent of its wheat imports from the country. About 40 percent of its wheat imports have since come from the Black Sea region.
Bloomberg’s report says most of the wheat brought from India will be transported by rail. According to people involved, the landed price in Bangladesh could be between $305 and $326 a tonne.
At an exchange rate of about Tk 123 to the dollar, Indian wheat would cost between Tk 37.52 and Tk 40.10 a kilogram.
Sri Lankan importers have also recently bought about 60,000 tonnes of wheat from India, at a price of about $325 a tonne before loading, which also works out at about Tk 40 a kilogram.
India imposed restrictions on wheat exports in May 2022 because of rising domestic prices and concerns about food security, which effectively halted regular commercial exports.
After nearly four years, India allowed wheat exports again on a limited scale under specific quotas in 2026.
Meanwhile, the price of refined wheat flour has also risen in Bangladesh. According to the state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, the price of refined wheat flour in Dhaka has risen by 17 percent in the past month.
Wheat is the second most consumed food grain in Bangladesh, so rising wheat prices could put extra pressure on inflation.
Price, not supply, is the bigger concern
Vladimir Zinkovsky, head of agricultural commodities research for Asia-Pacific at S&P Global Energy, told Bloomberg that the bigger concern for Bangladesh is not the supply of wheat but keeping its price within reach of ordinary people.
In his view, rising wheat prices could also increase rice consumption in the country.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report