Bangladesh has offered to buy an additional 200,000 tonnes of rice from Myanmar under a government to government agreement before the end of December, said associate secretary Lu Maw Myint Maung of the Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF).
Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding to buy 300,000 tonnes of rice under the agreement, a major increase from the 100,000 tonnes of Myanmar rice already sent to the neighbour this year in response to a shortfall.
Rice demand in Bangladesh increased with a sense of urgency this year after floods damaged most paddy fields in the country.
Bangladesh has imported 1.2 million tonnes of rice but still requires around another one million tonnes, said Lu Maw Mying Maung. So far, Myanmar has exported about one million tonnes of rice to Bangladesh, he said.
Myanmar exported over two million tonnes of rice over the first nine months of this fiscal year, breaking a record that stood for some 50 years, said Dr Aung Thu, minister for agriculture, livestock and irrigation on December 15.
Lu Maw Myint Maung said the federation expected about 500,000 tonnes of rice will be exported in the remaining three months of the fiscal year, and that it would break the record.