Sri Lanka: Rice shortage not caused by use of grain for beer, Media Minister says

Sri Lanka’s rice crisis is not caused by the use of the grain for beer, Media Minister Nalinda Jayatissa said as price controls made red rice go off the shelves into a black market ahead of the main Maha paddy harvest, Economy Next reported on January 22.

Sri Lanka only used about 16,000 to 18,000 tonnes of rice a year for beer, he told reporters at the weekly post-cabinet news conference.

“If you looked at the volume it is extremely small, to make any impact,” Minister Jayatissa said. “That is not the problem.”

The been industry uses rice for certain blending, the main starch used it malt.

Sri Lanka produces about 2.9 million metric tonnes of rice a year, of which the rice used for beer works out to around 0.4 percent.

There was also no truth in the claim that imported rice being used for beer was causing the shortage, he said.

Already 167,000 metric tonnes of rice have been imported and 8,000 metric tonnes are in the port.

Sri Lanka has import controls on rice. Beer industry officials have said they would be happy to import rice paying the tax, if they were allowed to import.

However, Sri Lanka not only has a 50 percent import tax on rice, but also licensing.

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