Sri Lanka’s coconut growers dismayed by plans to import fresh coconut
Proposed plans by the government to import fresh coconuts have sent shock waves amongst the Coconut Growers Association (CGA) who say such a move will have serious repercussions on the industry.
In an interview with the Business Times (BT) this week, CGA President Lionel Fonseka said that the moment they heard about the news of the government’s intention to import fresh coconuts, a delegation of the CGA met the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Economic Development headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
According to Mr. Fonseka this committee has indicated that only one container load of coconut would be imported to the country.
File picture of a coconut plantation up for sale for housing development
Mr. Fonseka pointed out that according to the Plant Protection Ordinance No.165/2 of November 1981 importation of palm production is totally prohibited. He said that the industry is faced with several obstacles with uncontrolled importation of palm oil which was a sharp increase from 15.3 million kg in 2010 to 170 million kg in 2015.
In terms of foreign exchange spent, it was US$13 million in 2010 rising to $152 million in 2015. The import of palm oil is a major barrier for the coconut oil industry as it is a well-known fact that palm oil is mixed with coconut oil.
He said that mite infections was also playing havoc in the coconut production with the ‘Aceria Mite’ infection come to stay since 15 years ago and so far even the Coconut Research Institute (CRI) has not been able to come up with a 100 per cent lasting solution to this infection. Due to this, he said that the country’s coconut production has retarded and the weight of kernel has been lost by about 30 per cent.
He said that the annual nut production according to the figures of the Coconut Development Authority (CDA) were:2012 – 2940 million nuts; 2013 – 2743 million; 2014 – 2905 million; 2015 – 3027 million and 2016 – 3011. The forecast for the year 2017 is 2340 million but as per the first four months of the year the production is down by almost 100 million nuts. Therefore it is quite evident that this year’s nut production would be lower than earlier years.
The drop in the harvest, he indicated is due to the severe drought. In 2016 there was almost 40 per cent drop in the rainfall and compared to 2015 and in the 2017 so far there is a drop of nearly 30 per cent rainfall compared to 2016. But Mr Fonseka said that importing coconut is not a solution to the drop in production.
The CGA is of the opinion that the government should take all steps to remove the barriers for the development of the coconut industry.