100,000 mt of rice to be imported to prevent ‘artificial shortage’

The cabinet has approved a paper submitted by minister Bandula Gunawardena for the importation of 100,000 metric tons of rice as a solution to any artificial shortage in the market.

Trade ministry secretary Badrani Jayawardena confirmed this to Hiru News.

The country needs 200,000 mt of rice a month.

According to the statistics of the director general of agriculture, 95 per cent of the paddy required to produce that amount of rice should be in state and private silos by now.

However, mill owners have told him at a recent meeting that they do not have such stocks.

The trade ministry says this claim could be an attempt to create an artificial shortage from October to December, in order to keep the prices high.