SOLRICE (Solomon Rice Company limited) yesterday announced to their Distribution partners that it was immediately reducing the price of Solrais.

SolRice will be reducing the price of its 20, 10, 5 and 1 kg Solrais products by as much as $294 per tonne as a promotion that will run between September 5 and the end of November.

SolRice General Manager, Mr Nick Ellis said the company is very excited about this multi-million dollar investment in getting a lower price to Solrais consumers.

“For too long we have waited for the shipping companies and SIPA to review and reduce or eliminate recent fee rises brought about by issues at the port and we are still waiting and carrying these inflated costs through to the man and women on the street, we could wait no longer, so we have decided that we would make savings elsewhere in order to discount our price for at least the next 3 months.

“Our loyal and hard working Distributor partners have welcomed this announcement with a great deal of enthusiasm and relief it would be fair to say,” Mr Ellis continued.

“The Distributors will pass this saving onto their retail customers immediately so the consumer will notice the price drop on the retailers shelf very soon. Those retailers who don’t pass it on quickly will be bypassed by the consumer for those that do, as the market is very, very competitive at this time and saving money when the opportunity exists is critical to our consumers who don’t normally have the luxury of paying higher prices when they don’t have to for Solrais,” he said.

Mr Ellis says that SolRice expected some good news from SIPA soon on the tariff situation and he noted the shipping companies are starting to announce reductions, (available later in the year), to their Port Congestion Fees due to improvements being experienced at the ports.

He suggests that if this continues, it is highly likely that SolRice may be able to maintain this discount after November and into the long term, and with a bit of luck, lower pricing even further if reductions by SIPA and the shipping companies go far enough and where he expects them to be.

“These are exciting times for the consumers of Solrais”, Mr Ellis said, “it has been a huge frustration for our company to see our faithful Solrais lovers having to pay the higher prices for so long, but at least this is now being addressed and we are starting to experience real price drops that will not only benefit our consumers, but will also flow back into the economy by freeing up more cash to stimulate purchasing of other goods and services from Solomon companies. This has to be really good news for everybody.”

SolRice has recently launched a good quality Long Grain rice, under the brand name Solgood.

When asked why SolRice chose to do this, Mr Ellis responded that there are a lot of cheap, sometimes really poor quality imports coming into the country and when money is short, often the grassroots will reluctantly buy this rice as they don’t have too much choice.

“Price is everything when you have very little money to spare. So, SolRice decided it could do something about this and raise the quality of the cheaper rice on the market by introducing the Solgood brand as a good value long grain rice. SolRice could do this as long grain is generally less expensive to buy on the world market that the medium grains Solomon Islanders are renown for consuming.

“Solgood is a ‘soft’ long grain rice. This means it acts, feels and tastes as a good long grain should, but also has some qualities of the medium grain we are famous for. It won’t stay moist all day, like Solrais will, but it will remain moist longer than most long grain alternatives” said Mr Ellis.

“However, the key to enjoying this long grain alternative, Solgood, is to cook it as you need it, not store it for much later. People who do this, coo when ready to eat have already given us some great feedback, telling us they are really enjoying Solgood and the value it provides for them, quality at an affordable price.”

Mr Ellis also informed the paper that there are a lot of major activities coming from SolRice in the next couple of months “that will change the rice category in the Solomon’s for years to come” and the benefits will be clearly felt by rice consumers.

Mr Ellis is clearly pleased and relieved about the discount that has finally brought the price of Solrais down, he is thrilled at the performance of Solgood and is clearly very excited about the secret plans for the rice market that he will be announcing soon.

This paper will report these changes as they come to hand.