Thursday Nov 14, 2024
Thursday Nov 14, 2024
Thursday, 19 August 2021 00:29 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Charumini de Silva
The Government this week decided on two further steps to address the rice crisis in the short to medium-term, including resorting to temporary imports and building new mills under public private partnerships.
The Cabinet of Ministers at its meeting on Tuesday agreed to a proposal from Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena to import 6,000 tons of rice through the Sri Lanka-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The Government said this was a short-term measure to address the shortage of rice in the market.
In June too, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to use the government-to-government (G2G) import scheme to purchase 100,000 tons of samba rice, as a counter measure to control price hikes by rice producers and traders.
Separately, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to build five rice mills in Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Batticaloa, Hambantota and Ampara under a public private partnership (PPP) and distribute the essential commodity via Lanka Sathosa and Co-operative Societies from the next Maha season.
The twin move is aimed at arresting price hikes, addressing stock shortages and protecting consumers.
“Although the rice production was well above demand, it was sold at unusual and exorbitant prices, further burdening the general public. We hope the establishment of the mills will address the artificially created exorbitant prices by traders and to protect consumers,” Co-Cabinet Spokesman and Mass Media Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said at the weekly post-Cabinet meeting media briefing yesterday.
The annual rice consumption requirement is around 2.2 million tons and the paddy harvest for the 2020/2021 Maha season and the 2021 Yala season is around 4.8 million. The collective production of rice is about 3.2 million tons. However, rice prices have been soaring for many months in the local market.
To safeguard consumers from the continued price hike, the Cooperative Services, Marketing Development and Consumer Protection State Ministry will also implement a program to purchase a significant portion of the paddy harvest in collaboration with cooperatives, to produce rice and sell it at a reasonable price.
The retail price of Samba at the Pettah market averaged between Rs. 123.67 and Rs. 119.53 per kilo over the past two weeks, as opposed to Rs. 96 per kilo a year ago. In Dambulla, Samba was retailing at Rs. 146 per kilo last week, while at the Narahenpita Economic Centre, the price was Rs. 125 per kilo.
The Government has expressed keenness to give Samba at prices below Rs. 100 per kilo.
