The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Steep rise in prices of raw, boiled rice

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Sunday, Jul 27, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Steep rise in prices of raw, boiled rice

S. Vydhianathan

This is due to poor arrival from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh

CHENNAI: There has been a steep increase in price of raw and boiled rice in the State due to poor arrival from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Seasoned raw rice varieties (Sona and Ponni), quoted at Rs.20 per kg in the wholesale market a week ago, are now selling at Rs.23 a kg.

They are being sold at Rs.25 a kg in the retail market.

Common varieties

Even common varieties now cost Rs.18 per kg as against Rs.16 per kg a few weeks ago. Rice from freshly harvested paddy, usually available at a lesser price, is selling at Rs.19 per kg.

According to a wholesale merchant here, Chennai city used to get not less than 150 to 200 lorry loads of rice from Andhra Pradesh and about 75 from Karnataka.

No arrival

For the last one week, there has been no arrival from these States.

It is said that the governments in those states are building up stock for distributing rice to ration cardholders at Rs.2 a kg, and restricting movement of rice to Tamil Nadu.

The merchant hoped that the States would allow their millers to move rice stock from September after building up sufficient buffer stock.

S. Chandresan, general secretary of the Foodgrains Merchants Association, said for the millers and wholesale traders in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Tamil Nadu was the major market.

The traders feel that the situation may improve in October after the arrival of kuruvai paddy in the State. But, the prospects of kuruvai paddy in the delta districts are bleak in view of the depleting storage position in the Mettur reservoir, they add.

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