Govt to upgrade criteria for wheat import

The Directorate General of Food seeks to upgrade standards for wheat purchases through international bidding to curb imports of low quality grains, an official of the state agency said.

The move comes following media reports on imports of two lakh tonnes of substandard wheat from Brazil.

The wheat was supplied by two contractors -- the Netherlands-based Glencore Grain and Singapore-based Olam International -- at a cost of $46 million or Tk 355 crore.

Ninety percent of the payment has been cleared, food ministry officials said.

The government said the Brazilian wheat was accepted after tests found that the grain met the specifications of the contract.

The wheat from Brazil is thinner, deep brown in colour and the amount of flour produced from it is also lower, food ministry officials said.

Even though the quality of the wheat was low, the food directorate accepted the cereal, as it fulfilled the criteria that are not stringent, they added.

After the distribution of the wheat, complaints arose that the grain was of poor quality, prompting the food ministry to collect samples from district storages for further testing.

On June 24, the food ministry said in a statement that it retested the imported wheat and did not find any grain that is 'rotten' or 'unfit for human consumption'.

"This incident is a wakeup call for us," said Ilahi Dad Khan, director (procurement) at the food directorate.

"We have taken an initiative to improve the specifications on quality parameters for wheat purchases through international bidding," Khan said.

For wheat import, the food directorate currently maintains 11 quality parameters, including test weight, heat damaged kernels, shrunken and broken kernels, contrasting classes, protein content, moisture, dockage and radioactivity.

The agency has already placed a proposal with the food ministry so that it can buy wheat from the international market from next fiscal year based on the tightened specifications, Khan said.

In the outgoing fiscal year, the food directorate signed a contract to buy six lakh tonnes of wheat from the international market and received 3.26 lakh tonnes from contractors so far.

The government aims to buy 9.5 lakh tonnes of wheat from abroad next fiscal year.

To attain the target, the government has allocated Tk 2,432 crore, up from Tk 1,615 crore in the revised allocation for the current fiscal year.