SL lucky to withstand global food crisis: Govt.
Acknowledging the hardships people are faced with the
skyrocketing food prices in the country, the Government yesterday said the
country was ‘fortunate’ enough to withstand the global food crisis amidst the
COVID pandemic.
“The food crisis is a global scenario, and we should
consider ourselves lucky to have managed the situation at least in this
manner,” Cabinet Co-Spokesman and Plantation Industries Minister Dr. Ramesh
Pathirana said yesterday at the post-Cabinet meeting media briefing.
He said the COVID pandemic disrupted the entire supply chain
where production was impacted with a significant price increase globally. With
the gradual revival of tourism and continued growth in export earnings of the
country, Dr. Pathirana was optimistic that the current situation will be
normalised within the next three to four months.
“In an open economy,
the supply and demand determine the prices. The price hike that we witnessed
was unprecedented and it was due to the pandemic. The Government took many
steps to revive the tourism industry, foreign remittances and exports. We are
hopeful that the situation will soon be reverted to normalcy,” he said.
The Minister also said that the Government was not keen on
controlling the market prices, although it is closely watching the
movements.
When asked if the Essential Services Commissioner’s position
was still active, Dr. Pathirana said that powers vested with him were not
curtailed.
Previously, Consumer Protection State Minister Lasantha
Alagiyawanna said the Essential Services Commissioner’s position was inactive
as the State of Emergency had lapsed.
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