COLOMBO – Sri Lanka will import 70,000 metric tonnes of rice to address a shortfall in the market, Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development Wasantha Samarasinghe said on Wednesday (20).
“Even though there was a surplus rice production in the country this year, when you go to the market there is no rice,” Samarasinghe told reporters, noting, “The farmer has no paddy, and the consumer has no rice.”
He said the best decision the government can take in this situation is to import rice to meet the demand.
Samarasinghe said the rice will be imported by two state agencies, Sathosa and the State Trading Corporation.
Sri Lanka ran short of parboiled rice (nadu) amid price controls, which kept it at the same price as red rice, discouraging farmers from growing the variety according to demand.
Import duties on nadu rice is 65 rupees a kilo or about 200 dollars a tonne, compared to around 530 dollars a tonne for similar varieties of rice.
-economynext.com
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