Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) rice under the PMB Rice brand will be released to the market from next week.
Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Conservation Minister Mahinda Amaraweera has instructed PMB Chairman Neil de Alwis to immediately commence the programme to supply rice (from paddy purchased from the farmers) to the market. Arrangements have been made to distribute this rice under the brand name PMB Rice to the public at a lower price than the controlled price.
Accordingly, PMB Rice, produced and distributed by the Paddy Marketing Board, is scheduled to be sold to the public in Colombo next week.
The rice will be distributed in packets of five and 10 kg and will be sold by National Food Promotion Board lorries at various locations in Colombo. The Paddy Marketing Board plans to sell 200,000 packets of rice in the first batch in Colombo.
During a discussion held on Monday (20), Minister Amaraweera stated that this programme will be launched with the aim of solving the rice needs of the people in the city of Colombo and its suburbs. In this way, the PMB is making some contribution in controlling the price of rice in the market.
He added that the Sathosa supermarket chain and other supermarkets will distribute rice under the PMB Rice brand throughout the country.
DN
