Rice Prices Climb in Bengal as Exports to Bangladesh Begin

25-Aug-2025 05:37 PM

Kolkata. After the Government of India announced withdrawal of control on rice export to Bangladesh on August 12, the Bangladesh government allowed private traders to import about 5 lakh tonnes of rice duty-free.

With this, traders started importing rice from India, due to which the price of this important food grain rose in West Bengal as well as some other states of the country.

It is known that on April 15, the Government of India had announced a ban on the export of rice to Bangladesh, which increased the complexity of supply there.

According to trade analysts, with the aim of curbing the rising food inflation in the domestic sector, on the one hand the Bangladesh government decided to import rice at its own level, while on the other hand, it also allowed private traders to import it duty-free.

With the start of export to Bangladesh, the price of rice increased by 10-15 percent in some other states including Bengal.

Under this, the Bangladesh government has allocated import quota of 4.60 lakh tons of Sela rice and 39 thousand tons of Kacha (white) rice to private traders. Since most of the rice is sent to Bangladesh from Bengal, a big increase in its price is being seen there.

Traders say that they had already received the information about the removal of 20 percent customs duty on rice imports in Bangladesh, so they had started stocking rice in the warehouse located on the land border of Petrapole- Binapole.

When the end of customs duty was announced on 13 August, trucks loaded with rice started reaching Bangladesh from India. As a result, seeing the rise in prices, common people started paying attention to cheap rice.

During the last two weeks, the retail price of Golden Rice, popular in Bengal, has increased from Rs. 34 to Rs. 39 per kg, Miniket from Rs. 49 to Rs. 55 per kg, Ratna from Rs. 36-37 to Rs. 41-42 per kg and Sona Mussoorie from Rs. 52 to Rs. 56 per kg.