Sri Lanka will become the first country to import non-fragrant coarse rice from Bangladesh, as it has agreed to export 50,000 tons of rice to the island nation under a government-to-government deal. The rice is supplied at $450 a ton including cost, freight and insurance, Bangladesh Food Minister Mohammad Karmul Islam has told media.

Strong output and good government stocks have prompted the Bangladesh government to initiate the plan to export rice.

In Sri Lanka, rice prices were up by more than one third by the end of September from a year ago as production dropped due to a long drought, considered by some experts to be its worst in recent history.

Although Bangladesh is the world’s fourth-biggest producer of rice, its population of 160 million consumes almost all it produces and the country often needs to import rice to cope with shortages caused by natural calamities such as floods or droughts. Bangladesh exports a small quantity of aromatic rice, but this government deal would be its first export of non-fragrant coarse rice.

Bangladesh aims to produce more than 34 million tons of rice in the current year, up from nearly 33.5 million in the previous year. It is reported that its reserves have risen to more than 1.4 million tons from nearly 1 million tons a year earlier.