Government to buy 10 million liters of soybean oil and 40,000 tons of fertilizer

The government has decided to buy 10 million liters of refined soybean oil for sale to TCB Smart Family Card holders at a subsidized price. At the same time, 40,000 metric tons of bulk granular urea fertilizer will be purchased from Saudi Arabia. The purchase of this soybean oil and fertilizer was approved at a meeting of the Advisory Council Committee on Government Procurement held at the Cabinet Division Conference Room at the Secretariat on Tuesday (January 13) under the chairmanship of Finance Advisor Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed.

The government will spend 180 crore 85 lakh taka to buy soybean oil at the rate of 180 taka 85 paisa per liter and fertilizer will be purchased at 191 crore 41 lakh 20 thousand taka.

When tenders were invited through the internal open tender system to buy these 10 million liters of refined soybean oil, four bids were submitted. Each proposal was considered financially and technically responsive. After all the bidding processes, on the recommendation of TEC, it was decided to purchase one crore liters of refined soybean oil (in 2-liter PET bottles) from Sonargaon Seeds Crushing Mills Limited, the lowest responsive bidder in Dhaka.

Meanwhile, the meeting approved the import of 40,000 metric tons of bulk granular urea fertilizer from Saudi Arabia's SABIC Agri-Nutrients Company at a cost of Tk 191.41 crore 20 lakh. This fertilizer is imported from Saudi Arabia in view of the proposal of the Ministry of Industries.

It is learned that an agreement was made to import 3 lakh 30 thousand metric tons of urea fertilizer from Saudi Arabia's SABIC Agri-Nutrients Company in the fiscal year 2025-26 and another 3 lakh metric tons to deal with emergency and urgent situations and fertilizer shortages in domestic factories, for a total of 6 lakh 30 thousand metric tons. According to the agreement, it has been decided to purchase 40,000 metric tons of bulk granular urea fertilizer at a price of $390 per metric ton.