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| Tuesday, 24 June 2003 |
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COLOMBO, June 23 (Lankapuvath) - A programme to re-vamp the rice milling industry has been launched to make it internationally competitive and to produce quality rice at affordable prices for the domestic market. It was decided to select 200 millers initially for the programme which would be carried out jointly by the millers, banks and the Industrial Development Board (IDB) project reports are being prepared by experienced IDB engineers in consultation with other leading institutes such as rice research institute at Anuradhapura. The programme would provide skills development techniques, instruct on cost reduction methods, effective entrepreneurship, marketing assistance and schemes to reduce transport costs. It was decided to extend the facilities islandwide on the successful conclusion of the preliminary programme. Agriculture Minister S. B. Dissanayake told Lankapuvath that the focus hitherto has been on the quantity of rice. However since the country has now reached approximately 90 percent self-sufficiency the attention should now be focused on improving the quality of rice. Ninety three percent of rice mills where being operated with inefficient outdated machinery which increased the cost of production while the mills where burdened on the other hand with high interest on loans and severe competition from low priced imports. It was revealed that many mills were in financial difficulties as the cost of production was high. This has made products uncompetitive in the international market although there was a demand especially for "red raw rice" which is grown by very few countries including Sri Lanka. |
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