"The (wheat) stock level is alarmingly low in this time of the year," one food ministry official said, adding that there was a delay in shipment from donors. But food ministry officials said the government would overcome, if necessary, such wheat shortfall by supplying rice.

They said the country had enough rice from bumper harvests over the past two years and was likely to yield another bumper crop this year.

Bangladesh produced about 25 million tonne of foodgrains, including nearly two million tonne of wheat, in 1999/2000 (July-June). This left the country with about 1.5 million tonne in surplus. Yet the country was likely to import 1.8 million tonne of milling wheat in fiscal 2000/2001, officials and traders said.

The officials said Bangladesh would bring in only about 600,000 tonne of wheat under public sector food aid this year, compared to 865,000 tonne in 1999/2000.

They said the government needed much of the wheat by February to distribute among the poor and to implement its food-for-work programme that creates temporary employment in rural areas. Under the programme workers are given mostly wheat as daily wage, instead of cash money, or rice in some cases.

The officials said 84,000 tonne of wheat had already come in from donors. "This is not enough to meet the requirement of wheat in the dry season," another official said.

They said Bangladesh, where rice is the main staple of its nearly 130 million people, would receive 240,000 tonne of wheat from USAID, 154,000 tonne from the World Food Programme, 80,000 tonne from European Commission, 65,000 tonne from Canada and 50,000 tonne from Australia. "There has not been any commercial import of wheat by Bangladesh's public sector since 1999/2000 due to adequate harvest of wheat and rice," one food ministry official said.

(Reuters)