Trucks carrying 112 metric tonnes of rice from India entered into Bangladesh through the Hili land port on Saturday afternoon.
Consumers say they hope the rice import would help to bring down prices in the local market.
Rice import from India through Hili remained suspended since May 30, 2019.
A number of traders said the government recently decided to import rice from India following the soaring price of the commodity in the local market.
On January 3 and 5, the government approved 29 importers for importing rice from the neighbouring country. Two importers from Hili port got approval to bring 20,000MT rice.
The first consignment of rice imported by Naogaon-based M/s Jagodish Chandra Roy entered the country on Saturday afternoon.
Sripodo Roy, a representative of the trader, said they had opened our LC for bringing 10,000MT rice from India and 112MT rice entered in the first phase.
Harun-ur-Rashid, President of export-import group of Hili land port, said: “Per MT rice costs $356, which means per kg costs Tk 29-30. But after adding the revenue, the price of each kg rice goes up to Tk 34.”
Sohrab Hossain Mallik, Public Relations Officer of Panama Hili Port Link Limited, said three trucks loaded with imported rice entered the warehouse of the port on Saturday afternoon.
