The official statistics show that Bangladesh harvested 242.69 lakh tonnes of rice and wheat in the fiscal year, 19.18 lakh tonnes more than domestic requirements.

But the private sector imported 30.53 lakh tonnes of the grains worth Tk 2,500 crore over the same period in what is the second largest commercial grain import in two decades.

In the fiscal 1998-99, 42.56 lakh tonnes of grain were imported in the wake of a devastating flood that brought Bangladesh to its knees, swamping 75 per cent of farmlands for several months.

Failing to set the pieces of the jigsaw, ministers and policy planners at a meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (FPMU) last week ordered the survey on food imports and market prices of food grains.

The meeting asked the finance ministry to foot the bills for the study.

Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Food Minister Abdullah Al Noman and State Minister for Planning Anwarul Kabir Talukdar joined the meeting.

It was also attended by Cabinet Secretary Dr Sadat Hossain, Agriculture Secretary Aiyub Quadri, Planning Secretary Badiur Rahman and Food Secretary Khairuzzaman Chowdhury and senior officials from government offices concerned.

The food secretary illustrated the food grain production, import and demand, prompting Bhuiyan to propose the survey by the FPMU and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies to find an answer to the puzzle.

The meeting also directed the Economic Relations Division (ERD) to step up the drive to get a larger volume of wheat in food aid.

It pointed out that although Bangladesh grew enough to feed its people, a chronic shortfall existed in wheat output what was met by food aid.

As the aid dried up dramatically in recent years, domestic wheat demand turned out to be a nagging problem.

The annual wheat production ranges from 15 lakh to 18 lakh tonnes against the requirement of around 30 lakh tonnes, officials said.

Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman told journalists earlier that grain imports proved a drag on the foreign exchange reserve, as the imports gobble up $300-400 million a year.

Importers, however, cast doubt on the government data on grains yields and requirements. "Certainly there is a gap between production and requirement, otherwise such a huge amount of grain imports cannot take place," one of them said.

Government officials, however, attributed private sector grain imports in the last fiscal year to high profit margins.

The price difference between Bangladesh and India is a major factor in grain imports, they said.

The lower duty structure also leads private traders to go for importing grains, they added.