Desk Report:
The government has set a target of procuring 5 lakh metric tons of paddy, 1.2 lakh metric tons of parboiled rice, 1 lakh metric tons of Atap rice and 50,000 metric tons of wheat from the domestic market in the current 2026 Boro season. Paddy and wheat procurement will start from May 3 and rice procurement from May 15, which will continue till August 31, 2026.
This decision was taken at the meeting of the ‘Food Planning and Procurement Committee’ (FPMC) held under the chairmanship of Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed at the conference room of the Cabinet Division at the Bangladesh Secretariat on Wednesday (April 22, 2026).
The meeting unanimously fixed the procurement prices of paddy, rice and wheat as follows: Boro paddy at Tk 36 per kg; parboiled rice at Tk 49 per kg; Atap rice at Tk 48 per kg; wheat at Tk 36 per kg.
At a press briefing held at the conference room of the Information Department after the meeting, the Home Minister said that there is currently sufficient rice stock in the country. Currently, 17 to 18 lakh metric tons of rice are stored in government warehouses. To ensure national food security, it is mandatory to maintain a ‘security stock’ of 13 lakh metric tons of rice at the government level. However, the government has the ability to increase this stock to 24-25 lakh metric tons if necessary and flexibility has been kept to change the procurement target considering the environmental situation.
The Home Minister said that the annual demand for rice in the country is about 4 crore 24 lakh metric tons. Due to favorable weather conditions in the current season, a bumper harvest is expected, which is capable of meeting the national demand. As a result, there is no need to import rice for the time being. However, in the case of wheat, since domestic production (8-10 lakh metric tons) is less than the demand, it is mainly dependent on imports. The annual demand for wheat in the country is about 8 million metric tons.
Salahuddin Ahmed said that to meet the demand for wheat, the government has set a target of importing 8 lakh metric tons of wheat through G2G and Open Tender Method (OTM). A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has already been signed with the United States (USA) to import about 7 lakh metric tons of wheat. In addition, importers at the private level can import wheat from various international sources.
The minister said that special importance is being given to the demand for Atap rice in Chittagong, Sylhet and Khulna regions. If the collection target is not met in a specific region, the supply chain will be kept active by collecting it from other regions. The government is on alert to ensure that there is no food shortage anywhere in the country.
Health Minister Sardar Md. Sakhawat Hossain, Disaster Management and Relief Minister Asadul Habib Dulu and State Minister for Public Administration and Food Md. Abdul Bari, along with secretaries and senior officials of the concerned ministries were present at the press briefing.
