PMB to increase release of rice stocks to market from 1,500 MT to 10,000 a month

By Ifham Nizam

Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera yesterday instructed the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) to issue 10,000 MT of rice per month to ease the shortage of rice in the market.

The order was given at a discussion yesterday at the PMB Head Office in Colombo on the prices of rice and a strategy to purchase paddy during the Yala season.

Paddy Marketing Board Chairman Neil de Alwis and Deputy Chairman Duminda Priyadarshana were also present at the discussion.

The PMB has so far released 1,500 MT of rice per month to the market, officials said, revealing that it had been decided to supply 10,000 MT of rice per month to control the rising prices.

Minister Amaraweera also instructed the officials to release samba in five and 10 kilo bags, branded as ‘PMB Rice’ to the market immediately.

It was also decided to launch a programme to generate solar power using the warehouse roofs of PMB. Storage facilities that belong to the PMB have a roofing area of around 200,000 square feet.

They also discussed that since the harvesting of the Yala paddy crop, action had been taken to purchase paddy from farmers.