Sri Lanka faces food shortages, here is all you need to know

Sri Lanka is facing food shortages with customers in state-run supermarkets reporting long queues for daily need items such as rice, sugar, lentils and milk powder, reports BBC.

However, the government has denied there are shortages.

It says that the strict controls on the supply of essential goods imposed on August 30 by president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was needed to prevent traders hoarding food items and control inflation.

The government has also declared a state of emergency, while Sri Lanka’s Central Bank chief has stepped down during a foreign exchange crisis.

In recent months, items such as sugar, onions and lentils have been rising in cost. Meanwhile, after rising in May, the price of rice has been falling and continued to drop following the imposition of a retail price cap from the start of September.

The emergency regulations allow the government to provide food items and other essentials at controlled prices.

The country's finance ministry told the BBC that "The creation of an artificial shortage by unscrupulous elements will obviously lead to increases in prices of those items."

"We can give a categorical and firm assurance that all essential items would be readily available at all times," the finance ministry said in its response to the BBC.