President Anura Kumara Dissanayake announced that the controlled price of rice will remain unchanged, emphasizing plans for a long-term program aimed at establishing an organized agricultural plan to provide greater benefits to farmers. He made these remarks during a discussion today (22) at the Presidential Secretariat with rice millers and officials from the Department of Agriculture.

The meeting focused on consumer goods prices, with a particular emphasis on maintaining the controlled price of rice, a staple food. President Dissanayake noted that rice millers had purchased paddy from farmers after the price control was set and said it would be unfair to change the price at this stage, the President's Media Division (PMD) announced. 

He called for a formal mechanism to ensure farmers receive fair prices for their produce while enabling consumers to buy rice at reasonable costs. The President attributed the current price instability to the long-term lack of enforcement of controlled prices and cited artificially inflated rice prices as a result.

The discussion also covered the need to tackle stock hoarding, with the President instructing agriculture officials to register known hoarders. Additionally, reducing input costs to ease the financial burdens of small and medium-scale rice mill owners was identified as a priority.

Prominent businessmen from the Rice Mill Owners' Association, including Dudley Sirisena, Nipuna Gamlath, Mithrapala Lankeshwara, Jayasiri Gunathilaka, and Menaka Gamlath, as well as officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, attended the meeting.