Rice sales make India Bangladesh's top import source

Enlarge Photo A man works in a rice factory at Galsi village, about 130 km north west...

Fri, Jun 27 02:08 PM

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh imported more goods from neighbouring India than from China in the nine months to March as a local rice shortage prompted a surge of imports of the staple, official data on Friday showed.

China overtook India as the top source of imports for Bangladesh in the year to June 2006 and was the impoverished South Asian nation's biggest source of imports last year as well.

But in July 2007-March 2008 period, imports from India totalled $2.45 billion, surpassing $2.29 billion from China.

Bangladesh's rice import bill from India soared to $730 million in the July-March, up from only $170 million in the whole 2006/07 financial year.

Two spells of devastating floods followed by the country's worst cyclone since 1991 in November destroyed nearly 2 million tonnes of rice, the country's main food.

The main imports from China are textiles, machinery and chemical products, while the key imports from India are food, textiles and machinery.

Central bank data showed Bangladesh's imports totalled $14.64 billion in the first three quarters of the 2007/08 fiscal year, up from $12.5 billion in the year earlier period.

Total exports during the period were $10.16 billion against $9.03 billion a year ago.

Bangladesh's trade relations with India and China are highly geared to imports, leaving huge trade deficits with both countries.

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