No decision taken yet for potato imports: Tipu Munshi

The government has not yet taken any decision to allow potato imports as the country still has a very good stock of the widely consumed vegetable, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said today.

However, the market monitoring is going on and the government may consider taking initiative to allow potato imports in consultation with the agricultural minister, he said.

The minister also said the imported eggs will start arriving in Bangladesh in the next three to four days as it is taking a bit more time for following some conditions for bringing in the food item.

For instance, the governments of the exporting countries will have to conduct some tests and certify that the shipped eggs are free of bird flu, influenza or any kind of harmful bacteria, the commerce ministry said in a statement.

Bangladeshi businesses need a bit more time to obtain important certifications for importing eggs as they have never brought in the food item rich in high-quality protein, the statement added.

The minister made the comments at the inauguration of the October sales of five essential commodities by Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) at Dhanmondi Lake area in Dhaka.

The state-owned corporation will sell the commodities to one crore families at subsidised rates.

Every TCB cardholder family can buy two litres of soybean oil/rice bran oil at Tk 100 per litre, two kilogrammes (kgs) of lentil at Tk 60 a kg, five kgs of rice at Tk 30 a kg, one kg of sugar at Tk 70 and two kgs of onion at Tk 35 a kg, according to a statement from the TCB.

Earlier, the government gave go-ahead to 15 enterprises for importing 15 crore eggs and seven enterprises have so far opened letters of credit for the purpose.

The minister also said prices of some essential commodities went up in the domestic market because of global reasons, but the government is trying to bring the goods to the consumers at an affordable price.