More demand for rice and rice flour with increasing cost of wheat flour

By Shezna Shums

The Ministry of Agriculture predicts an increasing demand for rice and rice flour as the price of wheat flour goes up. The prediction of the Ministry is based on observations it has been made over a period of time since 1996.

Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture S. Amitiyagoda explained that in  1996 the per capita consumption of rice per annum was 100 kilos while the per capita consumption of wheat flour per annum was 36.9 kilos

In 2007 the per capita consumption of rice per annum was 109 kilos and the per capita consumption of wheat flour was 30 kilos

In the year 2010 the per capita consumption of rice was 114 kilos and the per capita consumption of wheat flour was 27 kilos

This shows a gradual decline in the consumption of wheat flour and a gradual increase in the consumption of rice over a period of time highlighted Amitiyagoda.

With the current price increase for wheat flour as well as the price increase of Rs. 2 for a loaf of bread, the Ministry of Agriculture is predicting the per capita consumption of rice to increase from 114 kilos to 116 kilos per annum.

Furthermore the increasing consumption of rice is attributed not only to consuming cooked rice alone, but also due to consumption on rice flour based products such as string hoppers, hoppers, pittu and rice flour thosai etc. Presently some bakeries have started experimenting by producing rice flour based bakery products, bread and in some instances cake.

The Ministry of Agriculture promotes the use of rice flour by bakeries for making bread and other bakery items as well as increasing the consumption of other nutritious cereal foods such a suwaposha and samaposha the base of which is rice.

Given that there is an increasing demand for rice in the country Amitiyagoda said that although a yield of 2.8 million metric tonnes of paddy was expected from the Maha crop, the actual yield was only 1.8 million metric tonnes due to the severe rains and floods experienced in the early part of this year.

“Of the 780,000 hectares of paddy 157,000 had been damaged due to the rains and floods,” noted Amitiyagoda.

When milled the 1.8 million metric tonnes of paddy yield of the Maha season will come to only1.08 million metric tonnes of rice.

The Ministry of Agriculture according to its calculations said that an average of 196, 000 tonnes of rice will be consumed by the country out of the Maha season yield and that it was enough to last for about eight months of this year.

However it was also highlighted that the country had a carryover stock of 350,000 metric tonnes of paddy before the country experienced the rains and floods which would be added to the stock of rice available in the country.

Amitiyagoda confirmed that the quantity of rice available in the country will be adequate till end of July. The Maha season is from October to January and the Yala season is from March to end August.

“Nevertheless by August this year the Yala season will also commence. There will not literally be a shortage of rice during this interim period as farmers, middlemen and traders may have stocks of rice, but the country may see a slight demand driven price increase during this interim period in August,” explained Amitiyagoda.

Amitiyagoda pointed out that there may be an increased per capita consumption of rice from 114 kilo to 116 kilos per annum.

He concluded that there was a general trend of increasing demand for rice and rice flour and this was not only due to the increasing cost of wheat flour but also due to the health consciousness created among the people. With the increasing demand for rice the demand for rice flour based products such as hoppers, string hoppers, thosais and pittu is also expected to increase.