Serendib Flour Mills says compelled to hike prices due to challenging external factors

Serendib Flour Mills announced an increase of Rs.8.00 in the selling price of its wheat flour products with effect from November 16 midnight due to existing uncontrollable external factors.

The company was compelled to take this necessary step due to a variety of longstanding external factors. First among them is the drastic depreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee against the US dollar over the past months.

On January 1, 2018, the US$ rate was Rs.153.50 while today it has gone up to Rs.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 percent 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 at four percent.

Expressing his views on the challenging scenario, Marketing and Communications Head Kalinga Wijesekera said: “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,” he said. “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 one year, starting from November 26, 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.”