ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s government will allow the import of 40,000 tonnes of rice as a substitute for Keeri Samba, a higher grade, amid a shortfall in production, the President’s media office said.

Foreign in general is also taxed at about 220 dollars a tonne to give profits to farmers when Indica rice similar to that consumed in the island is only around 450 dollars a tonne abroad.

State agencies will import 5,000 and firm owned by ordinary citizens will import the balance.

But successive administrations in Sri Lanka have banned the import of standard grade rice through import licenses under an extreme nationalist autarky ideology and the ruling class relaxes the import licensing from time to time.

In late 2024 however taxes were not cut when the imports were relaxed due to shortfall of Nadu rice.

At the time a top rice collector warned that due to high price of Nadu rice farmers were sowing lower volumes of keeri samba. The yield of Keeri samba is lower than Nadu.

Published Date: June 27, 2025