“We are also going ahead with the Indian rice orders”, said Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen today (29th Aug.).

“On the directions of President Maithripala Sirisena, we released 52, 000 MT of locally milled rice to the market last weekend. These rice stocks were milled from the paddy obtained from the Paddy Marketing Board. The Indian rice orders will give us a very competitive price.”

Accordingly, on the 25th of August the ministry and its Cooperative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) have, in a Govt-to-overseas private sector MoU placed order for the supply of 70,000 MT of Nadu rice to Sri Lanka.  This tranche is expected to land here in mid-September. Another MoU with Indian private sector for 30,000 MT of Samba rice is to be inked in Colombo soon. This rice stock is expected to arrive during late September.

On the orders of the Cost of Living Committee on 26th July, the CWE started extracting 80,000 MT of paddy with the Paddy Marketing Board’s warehouses to mill in CWE’s own mills as well as through the private millers.

CWE sources said that 52,000 MT of milled rice from these paddy stocks have already been delivered to Lanka Sathosa last weekend to be sold to the public at the lowest possible price. The 52,000 MT tranche consists of a variety of rice types.

As a result of Indian purchases and domestic paddy milling, a total of 152,000 MT of rice is in the market-of which 52, 000 MT is already in the market at this moment.