Govt decides to import 70,000 Mt of rice to ease shortages and prices

The Government has decided to import 70,000 Mt of rice within the next four weeks in a bid to ease the shortage believed to have been created by rice millers, Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development Wasantha Samarasinghe said.

Minister Samarasinghe addressing a press conference at the Information Department said that following consultation with the Agriculture Ministry it was decided to import  Nadu rice through two state agencies – Co-operative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) and The State Trading (General) Corporation (STC).

He said that according to statistics compiled, though statistics show that the production of Nadu was much higher than the monthly requirement of 140,000 Mt.

The Minister said, however, the reality was that the anticipated rice stocks were not available in the markets and therefore has resulted in a shortage of rice in the markets.

He said that imports would be limited to 70,000 Mt and could not be sold above the Maximum Retail Price of Rs 220 per Kg.

“With the imports, we hope to bring the situation under control for the season while taking other countermeasures to draw out the stocks from the millers”, he said.

Minister Samarasinghe said that among the measures would be to get the large-scale millers who obtain loans from state banks to purchase paddy to provide frequent reports about the paddy stocks held by them.

Strengthening the process of the Paddy Marketing Board of purchasing of paddy stocks from the farmers directly is another step, he explained.