Bangladesh is likely to import 1.6 mln tn rice in 2017-18 (May-Apr), more than 12-fold higher than 129,000 tn a year ago. USDA arm’s estimate is also higher than 1.5 mln tn pegged by its parent agency. The production of rice in the country is pegged at 33.2 mln tn, down from 34.6 mln tn a year ago. Bangladesh’s rice supplies have fallen because floods last year destroyed up to 90% of the country’s standing boro rice crop, a variety of winter rice grown there.