Recently, somecitizens in Yichang snapped up rice under the effect of such information as the rice export ban imposed by a few countries and the Asian-African locust disaster. In order to know clearly about the storage capacity and the price of rice in the city, on April 2, the reporter,followingthe staff of the Municipal Bureau of Commerce, visited different units of grain storage, transportation and sales within the city, including Yichang Direct Depot of China Grain Reserves Corporation, the Three Gorges Logistics Park, and Beishan Supermarket Bailonggang Branch Store. It is found that the rice storage ofthe city is abundant that it can fully meet the daily needs of the citizens and the price is stable too.
On the same day, Li Songlin, directer of Grain Control Section of the Municipal D&R Commission, told the reporters that at present, the stock of ready grains in the central city excluding Yiling District is up to 10,000 tons (the total of rice and noodles). The present stock of grain can support the population of the central city for one month according toa standardof 350 grams for each person per day. In addition, about 430,000 tons of unhusked rice in stock canbe processed to rice with aweight of 235,000 tons, which can meet the consumption ofall the citizens for nearly half a year. During the pandemic, the Three Gorges Logistics Park purchased about 1,000 tons of grain from outside every day to meet local and surrounding market demand. Furthermore, the city has also signed purchase contractsfor 15,000 tons of ready-made grain with other places, which can be transported back at any time.
According to the feedback from major supermarkets and markets in the urban area, the sales of grain and oil have obviously dropped off and basically returned to normal, said Li.
The advice forthe public from the Municipal D&R Commission isthat rice will spoil easily in the coming summer, so don’t hoard it blindly. If you find any risein riceprice, please call 0717-6221697 or 12315 to report it. (Reporter Jie Xingwei, correspondent Liu Yali)