Pakistan, Bangladesh begin direct trade with 50,000 tonnes of rice

(AFP): Pakistan and Bangladesh have started direct government-to-government trade after decades of troubled relations with imports of 50,000 tonnes of rice, Dhaka said Tuesday.

The latest development comes months after long-time Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in an August 2024 revolution, fleeing by helicopter to her old ally India, where she has defied extradition requests to face charges of crimes against humanity.

Relations between India and Bangladesh's new government have been frosty since then, allowing Islamabad and Dhaka to slowly rebuild ties.

Direct private trade between the countries restarted in November 2024, when a container ship sailed from Karachi to Bangladesh's Chittagong.

It was the first cargo ship in decades to sail directly between the countries.

"For the first time we are importing 50,000 tonnes of rice from Pakistan, and it is the first government-to-government deal between the two countries," said Ziauddin Ahmed, a senior food ministry official in Dhaka, on Tuesday.

Bangladesh's Directorate General of Food signed a memorandum of understanding with the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) in January for rice imports.

Ahmed said trade with Pakistan offers a "new avenue of sourcing and competitive pricing", with state authorities in recent years importing the staple from India, Thailand and Vietnam.

Imports are critical to low-lying Bangladesh, a nation that is among the world's most vulnerable to climate change, with large areas made up of deltas where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers wind towards the sea.

The country of 170 million is particularly at risk of devastating floods and cyclones — disasters that only stand to accelerate as the planet keeps warming.

Private Bangladeshi companies have imported Pakistani rice for years, but Pakistani goods previously had to be off-loaded onto feeder vessels — usually in Sri Lanka, Malaysia or Singapore — before travelling on.