Govt floats tender to ship 3 lakh tonnes rice to Bangladesh

PEC and STC have invited the Indian companies to ship 3 lakh tonnes of non-basmati rice to Bangladesh by floating tenders.
Meanwhile, the Indian government has allowed the exports of 3 lakh tonnes of the rice to Bangladesh on diplomatic grounds and at a concessional rate. This is even though the country had banned exports of non-basmati rice in April 2008.
This tender comes a few days after Bangladesh Food Minister Mohammad Abdur Razzaqe had met Food Minister K V Thomas in order to decide the prices and quality issues of the grain.
Razzaque said that they have decided in this price at Rs 20,200 per tonne and it is on the condition that the rice would be inspected at Kakinada port.
Moreover, the country did not agree to the demand due to the constant instances of rejections of the consignment.
The bidder has to transport 3,00,000 tonnes of non-basmati rice (par-boiled) from various FCI godowns in and around Kakinada Port in Andhra Pradesh to Chittagong and/ or Mongla Port in Bangladesh, as per the tender specifications
On the other hand, the successful bidder will have to ship the consignment within 100 days, after bagging the contract.
As per the ministry's Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, in the year 2010, the output of rice in Philippines declined since its farms were hit by a drought and typhoons while the bad weather also affected the output of coconuts.
Moreover, as per the Food Corporation of India (FCI), in the current marketing season, the rice procurement by the government agencies has fallen to 14.53 million tonnes against 15.82 million tonnes in the last marketing season.

(Source: http://money.oneindia.in/news/2011/02/16/govt-floats-tender-ship-3-tonnes-rice-ba.html)