A team of four officials left yesterday (7th July) for Pakistan to pick rice varieties for the domestic rice market. On 12th July, the team will head to Myanmar from Islamabad to test Burmese rice varieties for the Lankan market.

The team, after checking both Pakistani and Myanmar markets, will decide whether to choose Pakistan or Myanmar (or both) to purchase the 100,000 MT rice. The purchase shall be at Government to Government levels.

The team of officials is led by Secretary to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Chinthana Lokuhetti, and two officials from the Finance Ministry and a food technologist from ITI.

More than 50 percent of this 100,000 MT rice would be par-boiled (Nadu) variety with the rest in white raw, and samba. Sri Lanka is also purchasing 100,000 MT rice from India immediately.