Essar Shipping vessels engaged in exporting rice to Bangladesh

Essar Shipping on Tuesday said its handysize vessels Tvisha and Tuhina are engaged in export of rice from India to Bangladesh, which would boost bilateral trade.

As per the recent trade agreement signed between the two neighbouring countries, Bangladesh is set to buy 150,000 tonne of rice from India. It is the first such bilateral deal in the last three years.

"Two of our handysize vessels Tvisha and Tuhina weighing 13,000 DWT, have been engaged in exports of rice from India to Bangladesh as per the recent bilateral trade agreement signed between the two neighbouring countries," an Essar Shipping statement said.

The company is a part of Essar Global Fund Ltd’s services and technology portfolio.

Essar Shipping CEO Ranjit Singh said as new export deals are slated to be signed with neighbouring nations in the coming months, the company''s vessels will also be engaged in trade in continuation within this region.

"With India’s five-year pulses import deal with Myanmar, we have bagged a shipment contract for these vessels which is to begin operations from 20th July," he said.

Both these vessels (Tvisha and Tuhina) have been continuously employed in back-to-back business to export rice since March 2021. India saw a surge in farm exports in 2020-21.

The surge was driven by record-high sales of rice -- 13.9 million tonne of non-basmati and 4.6 million tonnes of basmati -- and sales of 2.08 million tonne of wheat, a six-year high, the statement said.

In fact, growing demand for rice overseas is expected to be a big win for exporters of the commodity in India, it stated.

Bangladesh, the world’s third-biggest rice producer with an output of almost 35 million tonne a year, relies on imports from time- to-time to cope with shortages caused by natural disasters such as flood or drought.

Essar Shipping is India’s second largest private sector shipping company that has the youngest fleet in the country with a combined deadweight tonnage (DWT) of 1.12 million.

The company also operates an oil and gas drilling business that provides contract drilling services to oil and gas companies across the globe. This business owns a fleet of land and offshore rigs.