Bangladesh is to buy 100,000 tonnes of white rice from Myanmar at $442 a tonne, putting aside worsening relations over the Rakhine refugee crisis as the government races to overcome a shortage of the country’s staple food.
Normally the world’s fourth biggest rice producer, Bangladesh has become a major importer this year after floods hit its crops, sending domestic rice prices to record highs.
The deal with Myanmar is the first state-to-state rice deal between the two countries, and comes amid increasingly strained relations.