Sri Lanka’s two wheat flour millers have raised the price of a kilogram of flour by Rs. 17 with effect from Saturday, and canteen owners moved to pass the increase on to customers the same day.
Prima and Serendib both applied the Rs. 17 increase, Hiru News reported, with the companies saying it took effect from Saturday. Ada Derana carried the same figure. Neither outlet reported the new retail price of a kilogram of flour, and neither company gave a reason for the revision.
Food prices moved the same morning
The All Island Canteen Owners’ Association decided to raise the prices of flour-based foods — including roti, paratha and short eats — by Rs. 5, Hiru News reported separately. The association said the increase takes effect from midnight on Saturday, and that the decision followed the flour increase announced that morning.
The gap between the two announcements was a matter of hours, which is unusually fast pass-through for a food input in Sri Lanka. Bakery operators have in the past absorbed flour increases for a period before repricing.
The size of the increase
Rs. 17 is more than three times the last miller increase LankaNewz recorded. Prima raised flour by Rs. 5 to Rs. 225 per kilogram on 29 April, citing higher transport costs after fuel price increases. On that occasion the All Ceylon Bakery Owners’ Association said bread and other bakery products would not be repriced despite the cost pressure — the opposite of the canteen owners’ response on Saturday.
Movement since April has been downward. Lanka Sathosa cut its retail wheat flour price by Rs. 10 to Rs. 159 per kilogram in mid-June as part of a nine-item reduction, in an exercise the Ministry of Trade has used through the year to pass falling import costs to consumers. The state retail chain’s price and the millers’ price are not directly comparable, but the direction of travel has now reversed.
Wheat is entirely imported, and flour carries heavy weight in household food budgets alongside rice. Neither miller linked Saturday’s revision to import costs, the exchange rate or freight.
