Serendib Flour Mills has announced an increase in the price of its wheat flour products with effect from midnight today (16).

Accordingly, the selling price of the wheat flour products of Serendib Flour Mills will be hiked by Rs 8.00 over uncontrollable external factors, stated the company.

The company was compelled to take this necessary step due to a variety of longstanding external factors, stated the company issuing a press release.

It read: “First among them is the drastic depreciation of the Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR) against the US Dollar over the past months. On 1st January 2018, the USD rate was LKR 153.50 while today it has gone up to LKR 181.00, which amounts to a significant Rs 27.50 depreciation during this period. 

Secondly, the price of wheat grain and freight in the global market has shown a 15% increase during this period. 

Thirdly, is the increase due to inflation and packing material costs where the Central Bank of Sri Lanka statistics list the annual inflation at approximately 4%.”

Expressing his views on the challenging scenario, Kalinga Wijesekera Head of Marketing and Communications stated, “At Serendib Flour Mills, our mission is on “Nourishing the Nation” and we have been doing that for over 10 years. Unfortunately, today we are facing various challenges due to several external factors. We are legally not bound by any price controls as per the Agreement entered into with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI). Additionally, while not legally required to do so, we have followed the Consumer Affairs Authority Act throughout our journey in Sri Lanka. However, the Consumer Affairs Authority has regrettably failed to respond favourably to the genuine grievances of the company communicated in the price increase applications submitted by us over a period of 1 year, starting from 26th November 2018. It must be made clear that the paramount reason in taking this decision to increase the price of our wheat flour products is to avoid the collapse of the flour industry which will undoubtedly lead to food scarcity in the country and also loss of employment to many Sri Lankans.”