Govt will procure 50,000 tons of non-bashmoti and parboiled rice from Thailand through an international tender. The Ministry of Food proposal to purchase the rice from M/S Sima Trading Company will be placed at cabinet committee meeting on public purchase, which will be presided over by Finance Minister AMA Muhith. The proposal signed by Food Secretary Md Kaikobad Hossain fixes the cost per metric ton of the staple at $438, while the total cost of the import stands at $21.9 mln (Tk181 crore). Govt has previously failed to import 300,000 tons of rice from Thailand and India due to price differences between the two countries and the international market. The proposal put the per unit cost of import from Thailand at $464 and from India at $454 under the government-to-government purchases. The Food Ministry had aimed to procure one million tons of rice from international markets to meet the current shortage in rice, which fell to a five-year low of 345,000 tons on September 14.