As price of rice in south India climbs northward, West Bengal grocers see a beeline of buyers. Kerala government, for instance, is set to shop for rice in West Bengal in order to supply the food grain to southern kitchens where rice is a staple diet. “We have formed a consortium of representatives from Primary Agricultural Co-operative Societies to undertake procurement from West Bengal. The procurement will be completed by March 10,” Kerala minister for Cooperation K Surendran told the state Assembly here. The consortium has been entrusted with R100 crore for the rice shopping assignment.
The price of all premium brands in Kerala supermarkets have beeen shooting through the roof. Jaya rice costs R48 per kilo, matta rice costs R43 per kilo and surekha rice costs R37 per kilo. “Only in West Bengal, the rice is currently selling at a fair price. In southern states, there is huge shortage of the premium rice brands. ‘Suvarna’, the rice brand that’s popular in Karnataka is not relished in Kerala market,” Surendran said. Rice varieties from Uttar Pradesh and Punjab cost only around R32 per kg and R33 per kg in the retail markets. However, the consumer preferences in the south are yet to match to these varieties.
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In northern Kerala, there is a slow switchover in taste preferences to ‘swarna’ rice from Bengal and ‘cherumani’ and ‘kurava’ rice varieties that are sold at price below R24 per kilo. Kerala has a history of buying rice and potatoes from West Bengal, whenever there is price letdown from the Andhra market. Traders say there has been over 26% increase in the price of the premium brand jaya. Kerala consumes about 40 lakh tonnes of rice per annum. Of this, jaya and surekha rice from Andhra account for consumption upto 22 lakh tonne.
“Since jaya rice is a brand with much demand, traders in Andhra might also be creating an artificial demand,” says Kerala food minister P Thilothaman.