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‘Paddy to be milled and released to consumers’ - Bathiudeen
Both Govt. and private millers roped in
Lanka Sathosa to receive milled rice
Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen inspects rice on sale at a Lanka Sathosa outlet functioning under his ministry
A huge quantity of locally milled rice that usually garners strong domestic appeal is to hit the markets immediately, perhaps as early as next week.
“Now we have decided to get local paddy stocks to the market as well,” said Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen on 26 July. Minister Bathiudeen was reviewing the latest rice market status in Colombo with his officials.
“Due to stocks from overseas suppliers, the rice shortage is ending,” said Minister Bathiudeen.
“Based on the earlier directions of President Maithripala Sirisena and the Cost of Living Committee’s decision of Tuesday, 25 July, the Cooperative Wholesale Establishment (CWE/Sathosa) under our ministry will purchase 55,000 MT of paddy stock from the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) immediately. This stock will be milled by local millers and the CWE’s two own mills will then be released to Lanka Sathosa.”
Accordingly, CWE is to publish a public or newspaper notice to millers this week to bid for milling of the 55,000 MT purchased from the PMB. The bulk of the stock to be milled shall be red raw rice and the rest in other varieties. If milling is completed fast then this local rice, which is in high demand, can come to Lanka Sathosa for consumer purchase as early as the first week of next month.
CWE officials revealed that in the first six months of 2017 they milled 50,000 MT of rice released to Lanka Sathosa to be sold to domestic consumers. Many varieties of rice were available but the bulk of it was red raw. The stocks were milled by CWE mills as well as private sector millers.
In Sri Lanka, around 200,000 MT of various types of rice are consumed on a monthly basis.
