Bangladesh’s rice imports in Jul-Dec hit a 20-year high of 2.26 mln tn, after flash floods earlier this year washed away the country’s rice crop and damaged stock. Rice imports also rose after the Bangladesh government reduced customs duty on the grain to 2% from 10% in August. India is among major exporters of non-basmati rice to Bangladesh. In December, India signed a deal to export 150,000 tn parboiled non-basmati rice to Bangladesh at $440 per tn, sources said. In another deal, state-owned agency PEC Ltd sold 100,000 tn rice to Bangladesh.