UN agency saved 43 mn dlr by procuring Indian rice in 2008

New Delhi, Mar 15 (PTI) World Food Programme, the food
aid agency of the United Nations, had saved around 43 million
dollar by procuring Indian rice at a lower price than the
market last year.

"WFP was able to feed many more hungry people in 2008
thanks to India's willingness to sell rice to the organisation
at well below the market rate. We were able to save around 43
million dollar," World Food Programme (WFP) Food Procurement
Chief Nicole Menage said on its website.

India, which imposed export restrictions on non-basmati
rice to contain inflation, sells rice to the needy countries
on humanitarian grounds.

Praising India for 'humanitarian exception', WFP said
that the Indian government granted the exception for
humanitarian assistance despite the extensive export
restrictions which were put in place as a result of high food
prices.

Menage further said that WFP bought "hundreds of
thousands of tonnes of rice in India last year, at a price
which was considerably less than what markets were asking at
that time".

Indian rice was fed to hungry people in 22 countries,
including Liberia and Sierra Leone in West Africa, Haiti in
the Caribbean, and Loas and East Timor in Asia, WFP said.

WFP, the world's largest humanitarian organisation,
procured 2.8 million tonnes of food in 2008 from 85 countries,
compared to 2.1 million tonnes in a year-ago period.

The rise in food and fuel prices increased the cost of
the purchases, which almost doubled to 1.4 billion dollar last
year from 767 million dollar in 2007, it said. PTI LUX
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