In what is widely perceived as a move to counter the Union government’s distribution of Bharat Rice, the Kerala government has decided to introduce ‘Sabari K-Rice’.
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Announcing the decision at a press conference here on March 6 (Wednesday), Food and Civil Supplies Minister G.R. Anil said K-Rice is being launched with an intention to provide good quality rice at affordable rates to the public through Supplyco outlets.
The existing supply of subsidised rice from Supplyco of 10 kg per card will continue, with K-Rice too forming a part of it. The government purchases the rice at over ₹40 per kg and sells the various varieties at a subsidised rate of around ₹30. While the price of Jaya rice is fixed at ₹29, the Kuruva and Matta varieties will be available at ₹30. The Jaya variety will be sold in the Thiruvananthapuram region, while Matta will be sold in Kottayam and Ernakulam regions and Kuruva in Palakkad and Kozhikode regions, the Minister said.
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Branding exercise
In the first phase, the Sabari K-Rice will be sold in gunny bags with the K-Rice logo as part of a branding exercise. The total cost of the gunny bags will be less than ₹10 lakh, which will be utilised from the Supplyco’s advertisements budget, he said.
Differentiating K-Rice from Bharat Rice, Mr. Anil said that while high-quality varieties are being sold at subsidised rates under the K-Rice brand, rice that is available at ₹18.59 per kg through National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) and National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation Of India Limited (NCCF) is being sold as Bharat Rice at ₹29 per kg.
“While the Bharat Rice is being sold to the public with the Union government making a profit of ₹10 per kg, the State government is shouldering an additional burden of ₹9.5 to ₹11.11 per kg to distribute K-Rice,” said Mr. Anil.