Bangladesh has received the fourth consignment of wheat from the United States (US) bought under a state-to-state contract.

A ship, MV Lowlands Patrasche, carrying 60,950 tonnes of the grain, arrived on Thursday at Chattogram port.

With this, total shipments of wheat from the US stand at 239,586 tonnes so far.

The first shipment of 56,959 tonnes arrived on October 25, followed by 60,802 tonnes on November 3 and 60,875 tonnes on November 15, according to a press release.

Bangladesh started importing wheat from the US this year on a government-to-government agreement, aiming to protect Bangladesh's exports to America and reduce the trade deficit, which is currently in Bangladesh's favour.

Last week, the Advisers' Council on Government Purchase gave approval to the food ministry to procure another 220,000 tonnes of wheat from the US under a government-to-government arrangement to strengthen public food stocks and ensure a sufficient supply for social safety net programmes.