Rice among top 5 most imported items through Chittagong port

As much as 12 million tons of goods were imported through Chittagong port from July to September in the last fiscal year. None of those imports were rice. However, rice is already among the five most imported goods in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. More than 400,000 tons of rice has already been unloaded at the port from July to September 2017. According to the Chittagong Port Authority and Chittagong Customs House, 140 tons of goods were imported through the Chittagong sea port during the first quarter of the 2017-18 fiscal year. As usual, cement clinker has topped the list registering 2,989,000 tons of imports. In addition, 923,000 tons of stone, 763,000 tons of wheat, 612,000 tons of high speed diesel and 463,000 tons of rice were imported through Chittagong port. Of the five items, only rice was not imported during the first quarter of the previous fiscal year. As of October 10, as much as 324,000 tons of rice were imported by the government to the tune of Tk 1,168 crore. At the private level, BSM imported 50,000 tons, S Alam Trading Company Ltd imported 26,000 tons, Commodities Trading Company imported 16,000 tons, Lucky imported 16,000 tons, Bengal Trade 6,500 tons and Green Grain Processing Industry imported 3,000 tons of rice. A total of 1,043,000 consignments, worth Tk32,000.2 crore, were delivered through Chittagong port in the 2016-17 fiscal year. Some 20,000 government and private enterprises import goods from 4,671 different categories through Chittagong port every year. Moreover, over 1,000 tons of goods are imported in 900 categories.