Rice price likely to come down

Citizens incessantly battered by the soaring food prices over the last few months can now breathe easy: Prices of rice are most likely to decrease further as good paddy crop is expected in the coming harvest season.

According to the State Agriculture department, kharif paddy production is expected to be about 40.23 lakh tonne against 39.83 lakh tonnes last year. As a result of bountiful monsoon, paddy has been sown on 10.45 lakh hectare, which is about one lakh hectare more compared to last year. 

In anticipation of good paddy harvest beginning in November, traders have been releasing old rice stocks to the market in the last few weeks, bringing down the prices. The prices of widely-used Sona Masuri and Sona Steam varieties have plunged from average Rs 60 per kg to Rs 45 per kg and from Rs 40 per kg to 34 per kg (consumer prices) respectively. Price of Dosa rice (IR 64 variety) too has come down. 

“We are expecting good crop in the coming harvest season. Paddy production is expected about 10 per cent more than the actual target. There will be huge flow of rice to the market and the prices are expected to go further down after the harvest season,” Ramesh Chandra Lahoti, the president of Bangalore Wholesale Foodgrains and Pulses Merchants’ Association  said.

All dams and irrigation canals are full this year. The farmers will therefore go in for second paddy crop (also called summer crop), the harvest of which is expected in March-April next year. This may also being down the prices, he added. The price of rice had hit the roof owing to successive drought for two years.