Country to produce 40pc edible oil of its demand in 3-yr: Minister

Forty percent edible oil of its total demand will be produced in the country by three years next.

In this regard, the government has taken a work plan.

Agriculture Minister Md Abdur Razzak came up with this development to journalists on Tuesday at the beginning of a meeting on three-year work plan for reducing dependence of edible oil on foreign countries. 

It was learnt from the meeting that the country currently produces 12 percent edible oil of the total demand.

Mentioning that the country requires 24 lakh tons of edible oil, the agriculture minister said, “Some three to four lakh tons of edible oil are produced in the country. The rest amount is imported from abroad. Some 16 thousand crore taka was spent in the last fiscal year for the import of edible oil. Some Tk 20 thousand crore was spent in last 10 months of the current fiscal year as the price of edible oil increased. The overall import cost for edible oil  will be Tk 24-25 thousand crore in the remaining two months.”   

Abdur Razzak said “The premier repeatedly informed us that why the country needs to import huge amount of edible oil from abroad as mustard is produced here. But we cannot produce it as per our demand. Prime Minister asked us to try to reduce foreign dependence regarding edible oil. So, we have to increase our production.”