Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage said the rice prices would be brought down drastically next week in accordance with the agreement to be signed with the mill owners, Daily Mirror reported today on its front page.
The Minister told Daily Mirror that the mill owners had agreed to purchase paddy from farmers at Rs.50-52 a kilo. He said a similar agreement would be reached with them for the supply of rice at controlled prices.
“Once that agreement is signed, we will be able to sell rice (Nadu variety) at less than Rs.100 a kilo. In Sri Lanka, there are one million farmers. However, we have more than 20 million owners. More than 80 per cent of them consume rice of Nadu variety. Today, a kilo of Samba rice is Rs.150 and Keeri Samba Rs.225. We will bring them down by Rs.50-75 a kilo,” he said.
