Two more ships are scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka today and tomorrow with rice imported from India.

A ship with rice arrived in the island from India yesterday as well. One hundred and fifty thousand metric tons of rice from Myanmar and fifty thousand metric tons from Pakistan will also be imported.

The prices of rice and sugar in the market have gone up further. At present a kilo of nadu at the Pettah rice wholesale market sells at Rs. 130, a kilo of samba at Rs. 150 and a kilo of keeri samba at Rs. 220.

With the sharp increase in rice prices in August and September, the government imposed a control price on rice. However, with the shortage of rice in the market the government removed the control price of rice.

At the same time the owners of large scale paddy mills also increased the price of rice to 165 rupees per kilo of curry samba, 140 rupees per kilo of samba rice and 115 rupees per kilo of nadu rice.

However, the price of rice in the market has further increased.

As a measure to control the price of rice, the government took steps to import 100,000 metric tons of rice from India in stages and at present the rice is sold at Rs. 98 per kilo through the Sathosa Sathosa.

However, consumers are given only 5 kilos of rice at a time.

Meanwhile another ship carrying another consignment of rice imported from India arrived at the Port of Colombo yesterday. Two more ships carrying rice from India are scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka today and tomorrow.

The Ministry of Trade plans to distribute the rice through cooperatives as well as supermarkets from next week. The government has taken steps to import rice from two other countries in the future to address the rice shortage.

Consumers and shop owners say that the price of rice in the market is increasing day by day. Meanwhile the price of sugar in the market has also gone up sharply.

The price of sugar has gone up despite a maximum retail price of 122 rupees per kilogram of white sugar and 125 rupees per kilogram of brown sugar.

There are still about 200 unloaded sugar containers in the Colombo port. Sugar importers say they have not yet received the dollars needed to end the sugar crisis in the market.

Meanwhile, the All Ceylon Essential Foods Wholesale and Retailers Association states that the government should take necessary steps to supply goods to stores without any shortage.

Meanwhile, long queues were observed near building material sales outlets in several areas including Dambulla and Kurunegala yesterday as well. This was with the announcement that the outlets were receiving stocks of cement.

Meanwhile, wholesale prices of vegetables in the Manning Wholesale Market have also gone up.