Pakistan, Bangladesh resume direct trade with rice exports as Bangladesh receives 50,000 tonnes of rice from Pakistan.
Bangladesh and Pakistan have resumed direct government-to-government trade after a long history of strained relations, beginning with Bangladesh’s import of 50,000 tonnes of rice from Pakistan, Dhaka announced on Tuesday.
The two nations have seen an improvement in diplomatic ties following the removal of leader Sheikh Hasina. Hasina, who had served as Bangladesh’s prime minister for a long time, was ousted in an August 2024 revolution and fled. Since then, she has refused to return despite facing extradition requests for alleged crimes against humanity.
The new government has revived an opportunity for Islamabad and Dhaka to resume their bilateral ties.
In November 2024, private trade between the two countries resumed when a container ship traveled directly from Karachi, Pakistan, to Chittagong, Bangladesh. This marked the first direct cargo shipment between the two nations in decades.
Ziauddin Ahmed, a senior official at Bangladesh’s food ministry, stated on Tuesday, “For the first time, we are importing 50,000 tonnes of rice from Pakistan under a government-to-government agreement.”
Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Food formalized the deal by signing a memorandum of understanding with Pakistan’s state-run Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) in January.
According to Ahmed, trade with Pakistan provides Bangladesh with a new source of supply and competitive pricing. In recent years, Bangladesh has mainly imported rice from India, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Rice imports are crucial for Bangladesh, a low-lying country highly vulnerable to climate change. The nation’s geography consists largely of river deltas formed by the Ganges and Brahmaputra, making it prone to severe floods and cyclones. These climate-related disasters are expected to intensify as global temperatures rise.
While private Bangladeshi companies have previously imported rice from Pakistan, logistical challenges meant that Pakistani goods had to be transshipped through third-party ports in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, or Singapore before reaching Bangladesh.
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