The recent price hike of commodities including rice and vegetables will be back to normal by the end of this month, State Minister of Trade and Consumer Affairs Anura Priyadarshana Yapa told the Sunday Observer yesterday.
The State Minister said that plans are underway to issue 40,000 MT of red raw rice in government stocks to the market through Lanka Sathosa. “We will not import rice as it would badly affect farmers, as a fresh harvest of rice will hit the market by mid-January” he explained.
Large scale rice producers met with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, last week along with officials of the Ministry of Finance and agreed to issue Nadu rice at Rs 98 per kilogram and Samba at Rs. 99 per kilogram to the market setting them as the maximum retails price for both varieties.
“We are closely monitoring and manipulating the market to save both, the consumer and the farmer. We believe this will be ended and come back to normalcy by January,” the State Minister said.
Meanwhile, Director of Agriculture Economics and Market Specialist at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute, Duminda Priyadarshana said the price hike of rice and vegetables are less compared to previous years.
“Last year, Nadu and Samba rice kilogram went up to Rs. 120 whereas it stopped at Rs. 110 this year” Priyadarshana said.
“If the rice price stays at the Rs 100 margin, it is a win-win situation for both farmer and consumer,” he said. Priyadarshana said there is no need for importing rice as stocks will be available at the market soon.
Commenting on vegetable prices he said it will also come down in about two weeks with the end of the festival season. “There will be a slight demand for vegetables in the next two weeks. But prices will not go up as another stock will come into the market by then,” he said.