The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh plans to buy essential goods worth nearly Tk 8,000 crore in fiscal 2026-27 to help stabilize the market. The state marketing agency will procure edible oil, lentils, sugar, chickpeas and dates, according to TCB Chairman Brigadier General Mohammad Foysal Azad. TCB initially plans to source roughly half of the goods domestically and the rest from international markets.

Under its procurement plan, TCB will buy 220 million litres of edible oil, 220,000 metric tonnes of lentils, 110,000 metric tonnes of sugar, 14,000 metric tonnes of chickpeas and 4,400 metric tonnes of dates from local and foreign sources. It is regularly monitoring monthly demand, allocations, warehouse stocks and pipeline supplies to ensure uninterrupted distribution.

TCB currently has 40 warehouses with total capacity of about 48,370 metric tonnes and aims to add nearly 10,000 metric tonnes of storage capacity. About 8 million smart cards have been approved, with around 7.5 million distributed. The agency also plans point-of-sale machines and a mobile system for beneficiaries to access card information and make payments digitally.