The Sri Lankan government announced that rice millers who hide stock face ‘stern action’ as it set a deadline for all vendors to submit details of their stock.
Private mills and stores will be raided after the September 15th deadline to search for hidden stocks, with the government warning those traders who they claim are trying to inflate rice prices.
The government earlier set prices for rice, with the Consumer Affairs Authority having so far raided 400 vendors who had sold goods at higher than the set limit.
Meanwhile Sri Lanka is set to import some 100,000 tons of rice from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam, with Sri Lanka’s Finance Ministry forecasting that 15 per cent of the paddy harvest will be lost this year due to drought.
See our earlier posts:
Minister urges workers to eat rice flour as wheat prices rise (17 August 2014)
‘Banning its roti and eating it too’ (11 January 2012)
Government’s plan to ban wheat will affect Tamils – UNP MP (09 Dec 2011)
SL Prime Minister calls for wheat and fruit import ban (07 Dec 2011)
44 million extremely poor suffer as food prices soar (19 Feb 2011)
Food for thought (04 Nov 2010)
Sri Lanka wages war on ‘wheat terror’ (10 November 2010)
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