Pelwatta Sugar ties up with Hayashibara: Rice flour to be used for bread and cakes

by Shirajiv Sirimane

FOR the first time in Sri Lanka, rice flour would be utilised to produce bread and cakes. Hayashibara Co. Ltd, Japanese company has tied up with Pelwatta Sugar Company to introduce this technology to Sri Lanka.

According to the Hayashibara Co. Ltd, Director, Toshiyuki Sugimoto bread and other sweets produced from Rice is already in Japanese super markets and they are very popular.

He said that they would initially introduce machines to mill rice to produce the flour. "These machines would not cost more than Rs, 300,000 each. We are hoping to install a machine in each of the districts where there is a good paddy harvest," he said. The Pelwatta Sugar Company, a subsidiary of Master Divers Ltd, would undertake this project.

Flour would be sold to the bakers in the area at a price less than wheat flour. The bakers would have to do any adjustments to produce bread from rice flour.

He said that the secret of making bread, cakes and other sweets from rice flour is in Trehalose, a substance added when milling rice flour. This substance is an extract from mushrooms and other plant extracts and has no chemicals harmful to humans and would be supplied by the Japanese counterparts.

He said that bread produced with rice flour has a longer shelf life and would be at least 30 times cheaper than bread produced from wheat flour. The quality and the taste would be the same as wheat flour products," he said.

The Company officials successfully baked rice flour bread at the Hotel Intercontinental last week. The samples were given to the Minister of Finance, Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Minister of Agriculture Anura Dissanayake, and Minister of Enterprise Development Rohitha Bogollagama who were all happy with the product.

According to Master Divers, Chairman, Ariyaseela Wickramanayake, they would start producing bread from rice flour from next month. "We are hoping to start the project from the Polonnaruwa area where there is bumper harvest of paddy," he said.

Sri Lanka annually spends over Rs. 25 billion to import wheat. "When this project is 100 percent operational this sum can be saved and it would save foreign exchange," he said.

Another advantage of this would be that the rice farmers would get a better price for their produce since the demand for paddy would increase.

"This would also reduce the price of bread and generate more employment opportunities," he said.