Prices of essentials to go down

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

The prices of several essential commodities including chicken and rice will go down as the Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry will import these items to meet consumer demands. The ministry has decided not to allow private cartels to import essential food items such as dhal and rice, in a move to benefit the consumer, to ensure that they get these essential food items at reasonable rates, Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry sources said.

A high ranking ministry official said they are in the process of studying what items should be imported and have made arrangements to import stocks of chicken from Brazil.

The Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry is taking steps to import 2,000 metric tonnes of chicken into the country , which is expected to bring down the prices of poultry products considerably. Asked if this was not in contradiction with the government policy of increase domestic production by encouraging the local producer, the official said they were only importing these items because local poultry farmers are unable to meet the current demand for chicken.

"There is a consumer demand of 11,000 metric tonnes for chicken, the local poultry farmers are producing only 8000 metric tonnes," he explained. The Ministry will import what will be required to meet the demand, he said.

"We have discussed the matter with the local poultry farmers who said they were unable to meet the demand as at present but said they will try to produce enough stocks to meet the requirement in due course," he said.

Asked if these poultry producers did not object to the import of chicken, he said : "This is going to be a temporary measure.

The ministry has to look into the interests of the consumers as well as the producers. The prices of chicken have been very high because of the lack of stocks."