The Food Procurement Committee of the Bangladesh govt has passed a decision to import 200 KMT of Russian wheat for USD 252/MT C&F under an interstate agreement. Just 443 KMT of wheat kept in Bangladeshi state-owned granaries as of September 4. Previously, the government decided to purchase 2 MMT of food grain, including 1.5 MMT of rice and 500 KMT of wheat, from different countries because of a crisis in supplies. Buying grain under inter governmental agreements is more expensive than in international tenders. However, Bangladesh is forced to pay a higher price for foreign state grain because many exporting companies stopped participating in such tenders after the Bangladesh govt has tightened its tender requirements for the grain quality (protein, humidity etc.) and the grain acceptance procedure. In addition, ships with foreign grain are unloaded too slowly in the country’s ports, therefore suppliers incur extra costs. The latest purchase tenders in Bangladesh involved only one company each.