Reuters, DHAKA - The United States Agency for International Development will provide some 90,000 tonnes of food aid worth $67.8 million to calamity-hit Bangladesh in the current year, a statement said on Tuesday.

Bangladesh is estimated to have lost 3.0 million tonnes of food, including rice and wheat -- the country's second staple food -- in fiscal 2007-08 (July-June) due to floods and Cyclone Sidr that hit the country's southern coast in November last year.

The food aid will include wheat, yellow split-peas and vegetable oil for distribution among the Sidr-hit people and in flood prone areas in Bangladesh, a U.S. embassy official said.

Retail prices of wheat, edible oil and pulses have doubled over the last 12 month. A kg of rice, wheat and pulses are sold at 40 taka, 45 taka and 110 taka respectively, while edible oil at around 110 taka per litre.

USAID has provided more than $19 million in emergency funds to support relief and early recovery activities since Cyclone Sidr hit last year, killing some 3,500 people and making millions homeless, the USAID statement said.