Govt. activates warehouse pricing, vast co-op system to battle cost of living

Sri Lankan Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen and Lanka Sathosa Chairman T.M.K.B. Tennakoon met the press at the CWE Vauxhall Street offices yesterday

Launching a major assault on the country’s raging cost of living, Sri Lanka closed its international tender call for a 200,000 MT rice tranche and swiftly enlisted its vast cooperative network yesterday to battle the country’s cost of living onslaught which is now entering wild territory. 

Sri Lanka also announced a new, State-owned FMCG wholesale store chain to deliver essentials at low warehouse prices - to anyone and at any asked volumes - as a stopgap measure in its cost of living control.   

“Our international tender to import 200,000 MT of rice closed yesterday (31 October). Rice samples submitted with tender bids are being forwarded to ITI for lab tests. The 200,000 MT total consists of 90,000 MT Parboiled Nadu rice, 60,000 MT Samba (Parboiled) rice and 50,000 MT of White Raw rice,” said Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen yesterday in Colombo. 

Minister Bathiudeen, joined by Lanka Sathosa Chairman T.M.K.B. Tennakoon and the Director of his Ministry Indika Ranatunga, was addressing a special press briefing on the domestic rice market at the CWE offices at Vauxhall Street, Colombo. 

Minister Bathiudeen lowered the prices of several essential items – a further cost reduction - sold by the 370-outlet strong Lanka Sathosa chain which falls under his ministry, with immediate effect: red dhal at Rs. 148 per kilo (from Rs. 152), Samba rice at Rs. 78 (from Rs. 80), broken rice at Rs. 60 (from Rs. 65), Parboiled Nadu rice at Rs. 73 (from Rs. 74) and White Raw rice at Rs. 64 (from Rs. 65).

The latest tender is, unlike previous government-to-government (G2G) tenders, a “Sri Lanka government to local and international private sector” call. A total of 34 local and international private sector suppliers have quoted for the 200,000 MT tender, announced on 19 October and closed on 31 October. Private sector suppliers from Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand, India and Vietnam are among them. 

Several Sri Lankan suppliers also quoted. This week the ministry will forward all the quotes to the Cabinet-appointed High Powered Tender Board which will compare the prices of these international and local private sector suppliers with the G2G prices quoted in previous G2G tender calls, before making any final selections. The high-powered tender board is expected to pick the qualifying suppliers during the coming week.

“17,100 MT of Nadu rice from India is now in the markets and 53,000 MT more will come by the middle of this month. We have also opened 25 new wholesale outlets under state-owned retail market chain Lanka Sathosa, which operates under my ministry - one wholesale outlet per district. Lanka Sathosa is a retail network but we have opened wholesale outlets,” said Minister Bathiudeen.

“These outlets are now selling all essential items to anyone at wholesale prices and in any volumes asked for. We have also launched essential items delivery to 4,000 cooperatives across the country at wholesale prices from the 25 new wholesale outlets. Our cooperative network is vast; its cooperative retail shops are widely present in villages so that the majority of consumers can now buy essential items at low prices or Maximum Retail Prices since they can now receive items directly from state-owned wholesale shops.”

There are almost 14,500 cooperatives in various productions services, SMEs, women’s development, rural banking, insurance and farming sectors - active in Sri Lanka. Through co-op city shops, cooperatives are also now present in the country’s FMCG retail sector. The Lankan co-op city shop network is the third ranking retail chain for household purchases among Sri Lankans out of all the top six supermarket chains - Keells supermarket is ranked fourth and Arpico is ranked fifth.

More than 400,000 households in Sri Lanka visit co-op city cooperative shops for their essential purchases and 800,000 households visit the Lanka Sathosa network for the same.