Short supply of paddy from production centres in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh has hit the operation of rice mills in Tiruchi hard.

According to sources, there are about 120 mills in Tiruchi. They are located in Manachanallur, Ariyamangalam and Kattur. Manachanallur, a suburban town of Tiruchi has outnumbered other areas in Tiruchi in housing a large number of rice mills. Manapparai, another town in the district, has some rice mills.

They get paddy from Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, and other areas in the Cauvery delta. Besides them, the mills receive paddy from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. Rice mill owners in Manachanllur procure fine quality of paddy from the farmers of Manachanallur and several parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. After the boiling, drying, and hulling process, the rice millers send rice to the market. While some millers market the rice as Manachanallur ponni, there are others, who market rice by branding them.

They procure paddy directly from the paddy fields during the harvest seasons and store it in the mills. The millers process the paddy gradually and market the rice throughout the year.

According to industry sources, the rice mill sector employs about 2,000 people. It provides indirect employment to many persons in the district. However, the short supply of paddy has raised questions on employing the workers regularly.

Traders cite short supply from cultivating centres, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. There has been no supply from the delta region in the last few months. Similarly, Tiruchi used to get a steady supply of paddy from Karnataka in November-December and April-May seasons. However, the millers in Tiruchi hardly received supply from Karnataka in the last two seasons, thereby causing a gap between demand and supply.

Except for a few big players, who procured huge quantities of paddy during the harvest seasons and stocked them in the mills, many rice mills in Tiruchi struggle to provide employment to the workers. Though the demand for rice is steadily rising in the market, the rice millers find it difficult to make use of it. They are forced to operate the mills three to four days in a week, thereby rendering the workers jobless for two or three days in a week.

T. Suresh of Bala Boiler Modern Rice Mill in Tiruchi said the price of one bag of paddy (63kg) had risen to ₹2,100 from ₹1,450 since January. Paddy farmers, who had stocked up their produce waiting for good prices, were not ready to sell as they expected that the demand would go up further. Mills could not be operated to the optimum level because of short supply of paddy, he said.

Another mill owner from Manachanallur said that paddy procurement was unlikely to improve as the overall area under paddy cultivation in kuruvai season had come down. Moreover, questions were raised on raising paddy in samba season as well. The chances of procuring paddy from Karnataka looked dim because of the erratic monsoon season. It would ultimately lead to an increase in prices of rice varieties. 

Published - August 06, 2026 07:49 pm IST