Rs. 780 m from rice exports

Irangika Range

The government has earned Rs. 780 million by exporting 30,000 metric tonnes of rice to United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Sri Lanka which was a rice importing country until recently has achieved self sufficiency in rice production due to extensive encouragement of paddy cultivation by the government through various incentives including fertilizer subsidy, Co-operatives and Internal Trade Minister Johnston Fernando told the Daily News . The country possesses a large stock of excess rice and initiatives have been made by the Cooperatives and Internal Trade Ministry to export them.

“We have already received orders from several countries and seek possibilities to export more rice in the future”, he said.

Meanwhile, the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) maintains buffer stock of 180,000 MT of paddy to the value of Rs. 5,940 million in its granaries across the country. The PMB has purchased about 257000 metric tonnes spending Rs.7843 million during 2011/2012 Maha season, 2012 Yala season and 2012/2013 Maha season. He added that a record 131,000 MT of paddy had been purchased at a cost of Rs. 4,187 million from this year’s Maha harvest.

He said that the PMB had had only 102 warehouses in 2002, and the number of warehouses have been increased upto 210 and the purchase of paddy in the North and East had already commenced.