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(LBO) - The Sri Lankan government says it plans to allow rice imports despite a record high paddy harvest in the last season. Suranjana Vidyaratne, Director General of the Department of Statistics said the bumper harvest came from a 100 percent increase in output in key rice growing areas compared with the year before. These areas were the north-central Anuradhapura and Kurunegala districts, as well as the eastern Batticaloa district. Government forces freed the eastern region of Tamil Tiger rebel activity last year, allowing normal cultivation to resume in some of the most fertile paddy tracts after years of neglect. But Consumer Affairs Minister Bandula Gunawardane said Thursday that 10,000 tons of rice would be imported as buffer stock to prevent possible future price hikes. `There is an attempt in the market to artificially increase the price of rice,` he told a news conference. `The traders are trying to artificially push prices up before the February harvest.` He charged that traders tried a similar tactic earlier this year when they tried to push up rice prices. At that time the ministry of consumer affairs allowed the import of 8,000 tons of rice from Burma to stabilize prices after they nearly hit an unprecedented 100 rupees per kilo. But economists have said the price hike earlier this year were part of a global commodities bubble which has now collapsed with prices of several commodities falling sharply. The government budget for 2008 had earmarked 15 billion rupees as fertilizer subsidies. But this was busted in just five months and the government later increased the subsidies to 40 billion rupees. The government has allocated 26 billion rupees as fertilizer subsidies in next year`s budget. ] |
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