Dhaka : Bangladesh has resumed wheat imports from India for the first time since 2022, as disruptions linked to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war push up wheat flour prices, which have risen by up to 17% over the past month. Bangladeshi traders have booked more than 200,000 tonnes of Indian wheat at between $306 and $326 per tonne, with the consignments set to arrive by rail.
The purchases mark Dhaka’s first such imports from India in more than four years. Rice is Bangladesh’s staple cereal, but wheat is also the country’s second-most consumed grain. According to Dhaka-based The Daily Star, Bangladesh produces roughly one million tonnes of wheat annually but needs to import an additional seven million tonnes to meet domestic demand.
India has historically been a major wheat supplier to Bangladesh, accounting for more than half of its wheat imports in some years. A Daily Star report noted that India exported 11,57,399.35 tonnes of wheat worth $299.4 million to Bangladesh in 2020-21. But that trade was disrupted after India imposed restrictions on wheat exports in 2022.
While India used to supply much of Bangladesh’s wheat demand, things changed in 2022. That year saw the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, disrupting supplies from the two of the world’s two largest exporters and briefly led to India becoming a major wheat exporter that year. After lower than expected harvests and rising global demand led to domestic prices rising between 15% to 20%, New Delhi restricted all wheat exports from 2022. Exceptions were allowed for shipments backed by letters of credit already issued and supplies approved to meet the food-security requirements of other countries.
Cut to 2026, things have changed. In August this year, India lifted its four-year-old wheat export ban after a record harvest of 120.65 million tonnes in the 2025–26 crop year created a domestic surplus and depressed incomes for wheat growers. At the same time, supplies coming from Russia and Ukraine have once again been disrupted because of attacks on shipping and grain terminals along the Black Sea coast. According to Bloomberg, Ukraine’s wheat exports have fallen off a cliff, from 4.48 million tonnes in April this year, to 1.13 million tonnes in August.
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