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Do
away with subsidies for wheat flour imports
Ajith Nivard Cabraal, also a UNP politician and management consultant getting into the heated debate over wheat flour prices, said the price of flour should be decided by supply-demand forces in the market. The moment the subsidy is taken off, it is simple matrix that the demand for flour and flour-based food would diminish - due to high prices - and in turn increase demand for rice and rice-based food. He predicted that once the subsidy is taken off the demand for flour and flour based food would reduce by 50 percent while demand for rice would increase by 50 percent with profits for Sri Lankan rice farmers also rising by the same proportion. "All these years what Sri Lankan governments have been doing is subsidising US farmers at the expense of our poor rice farmers. In the US only seven percent of the population are involved in farming whereas in Sri Lanka it would be 55 percent of the population," he told The Sunday Times FT. He said that this is a vital national issue where the authorities must take bold decisions. He said part of the money allocated for the annual flour subsidy should be channeled to research and development to produce convenient and easy-to eat food based on local produce. Dr Nirmala M Peiris, Head Corporate Services Division of the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI), said ITI has acquired expertise and technology for manufacture of a multitude of new products from rice. Last year it embarked on an "Eat more rice in more ways" programme issuing a seven-point strategy for the better utilization of rice. A range of new products from rice and rice flour, bakery products such as bread rolls, biscuits, muffins and cookies and instant convenient products like mixes for traditional foods such as hoppers, thosai, roti, string hoppers, pittu and dessert mixes have been perfected by ITI. |
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