Kerala - Kochi   

Kerala delegation visiting West Bengal for rice

KOCHI: Senior Kerala officials have left for Kolkata to shop for rice in the West Bengal countryside in order to boost rice availability and dampen price at home.

Food Secretary K.R. Joythilal and Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation (Supplyco) Managing Director Yogesh Gupta left for Kolkata on Sunday, while two Supplyco executives, who left on Saturday, had already started the groundwork. Officials of the Left Front-ruled West Bengal’s Department of Consumer Affairs will facilitate the Kerala officials’ scout for rice. They will help in establishing contacts with the local mill owners and in the price negotiations.

Mr. Gupta told The Hindu that he and Mr. Jyothilal would meet Meera Pandey, West Bengal government’s Commissioner of Food as well as the Managing Director of the Essential Commodities Corporation, which is the West Bengal counterpart of Supplyco.

The emergency purchase is in view of the drastic rise in the price of rice in the domestic market and the fall in supplies.

The Central allocation of rice through the public distribution system (PDS) has nosedived in the recent past, thus curtailing availability of subsidised rice. The State government had recently decided to build a rice buffer stock of six lakh tonnes to meet emergency situations in the context of shrinking food availability and rising prices worldwide.

The Kerala team hopes to make an initial purchase of about 10,000 tonnes and to ship them to Kerala. A senior Supplyco official said that Kerala was trying to procure rice at a price below Rs.14 a kg. Since the State government had agreed to underwrite the shipping and handling expenses, Supplyco would be able to sell the West Bengal rice at Rs.14 a kg. `Bodhana,’ `1001’ and `Swarna’ are the varieties the Kerala team is shopping for.

The Supplyco officials had recently negotiated with mill-owners in Andha Pradesh for purchase of large quantities of rice. Since their price is higher at around Rs.17 a kg and since the transportation costs (by rail wagons) would be higher, Supplyco is looking for an alternative in West Bengal. The Andhra rice (mainly Jaya and Kuruva varieties) would cost as much as Rs.20 a kg when it hits the market.

The current rice varieties used in Kerala are: Matta (35 per cent); Jaya (20 per cent); Kuruva (20 per cent); and, Bodhana, 1001 and Swarna (25 per cent).

Kerala consumes 30 lakh tonnes of rice a year, of which roughly 5 lakh tonnes are produced in the State. This means roughly 85 per cent of the State’s food grains demand is met by imports from other States.

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