Rice price up Rs 2/kg after surge in demand

“As we know those who purchase rice personally there has been no payment problems and such private sales keeps the paddy/rice moving during the crisis,” according to Arani taluk Paddy and Rice Merchants Association secretary CA Arun.

Stating that paddy arrivals were regular from other districts and from Andhra Pradesh while loads were yet to arrive from Karnataka, he said, “Lorry drivers depend on small eateries and dhabas for their meals and as these are now closed, lorry drivers prefer not to travel and hence due to poor arrivals, the price of rice has gone up by around Rs 2 per kilo which is around Rs 30 per kilo for ordinary varieties and around Rs 44 per kilo for the fine varieties.” Arani taluk has around 150 hulling units which convert paddy to rice with presently around 70 units functioning. “Only after the entire harvest is completed will all units start working,” Arun added.

Asked about shortage of fuel to burn paddy conversion furnaces, he said, “though there was some shortage more than a week ago, the issue has been set right and now we get enough firewood.” In addition to firewood, the furnaces also use paddy chaff and ground nut husk, called ‘pottu’ locally.

Stating that top government officials were constantly in touch with them to ensure that there was no hold up anywhere in the rice land-to-consumer chain, he said, “the Union and state governments declaring both paddy and rice as essential commodities greatly helped ease paddy movement to hulling centres from where converted rice reaches the public,” Arun noted.