Ministry of Trade gathering data to maintain safe rice stocks

COLOMBO (News 1st): An initiative is currently in place to collect information on rice stocks in order to maintain a safe stock of 8000 metric tonnes of rice, the Ministry of Trade said. The required rice stocks for this purpose will be purchased at the maximum price for bulk quantities imposed by the government, Badhrani Jayawardena, the Secretary to the Ministry of Trade told News 1st on Friday (Apr. 02). "Through the first phase of the program 8,000 metric tonnes will be collected, in order to maintain a safe stock of 25,000 metric tonnes of Nadu and Samba rice," Jayawardena pointed out. According to Jayawardena, during the 'Maha' season, a stock of 3.2 million metric tonnes of rice was harvested this year; she was hopeful that a harvest of 1.5 million metric tonnes of rice could be expected from the upcoming 'Yala' season. Thereby, Bhadrani Jayawardena, the Secretary to the Ministry of Trade further assured that there will be NO shortage of rice in the country in the future.