Centre agrees to buy parboiled rice from Telangana

Hyderabad: Finally, the Union Government has agreed to buy parboiled rice from Telangana. The Union Ministry of Food and Public Distribution has accepted the millers' demand to procure the parboiled rice produced in the last Rabi season.

The ministry has communicated to the State Civil Supplies authorities that it will procure 8 lakh metric tonnes of rice in addition to 6 lakh metric tonnes which was already purchased from the millers recently.

It may be mentioned here that a delegation of parboiled rice mill managements has met the Union Minister of Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal in New Delhi and expressed their woes due to the Centre's decision to not procure parboiled rice from the state. The millers submitted a memorandum to the Union Minister requesting to procure all available stocks and save the rice mill industry from collapse.

Rice millers' associations leaders said that the Centre's decision to procure available parboiled rice will help the industry to survive in the coming days as the management were facing financial crisis. The procurement of all available parboiled rice stocks will help the millers to prepare for next the kharif season and process the new paddy reserves without any financial implications. Meanwhile, Union Minister for Tourism and Culture G Kishan Reddy, who took the initiative to resolve the parboiled rice procurement issue with the Centre, said that the ministry responded positively to the millers' demand to prevent distress sale in the open market and also protect the farmers' interests in the ensuing season.