Golden Rice trophy presented to Minister Basil

Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa was presented with the 'Golden Rice' trophy for being the pioneer in introducing a rice-based economic development programme at a ceremony to mark the launch of Raigam Deveni Batha at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo, recently.

The Deveni Batha is noodles made with 100 percent rice flour by the Kingdom of Raigam Group of Companies to introduce a new meal to consumers instead of the usual rice meal.

Consumers now have the opportunity of buying three varieties noodles all made of flour from locally grown rice - white Kekulu, Pink Kekulu and Red Kekulu.

Around 880,000 farmer families are engaged in Sri Lanka's rice production which is about 4.8 million metric tons a year. The introduction of rice noodles is expected to reduce addiction to wheat flour noodles and ensure a stable price for locally grown rice, which has now become a main ingredient in food production here. This is bound to economically benefit rice farmers and raise their living standards. At present Kingdom of Raigam purchases 5,000 metric tons of rice for its products and hopes to increase the amount in future.

In addition, the government would be able to reduce wheat flour imports considerably and save around Rs.925 million in foreign exchange annually. Among the large number of invitees who attended the event were Agriculture Development Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene, Senior Minister for Good Governance and infrastructure Development Ratnasiri Wickremanayake and Raigam Chairman Ravi Liyanage.