Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

Coconut imports akin to lowering export quality like in tea

- By Quintus Perera

While Sri Lanka is striving to maintain quality tea exports as ‘ Pure Ceylon Tea’ but is threatened by low grades for blending purposes entering the re-export market, the same danger is looming in coconut exports.

At the 24th AGM of the Coconut Growers Associatio­n of Sri Lanka held last week in Colombo, its President, Jayantha B Samarakoon, dwelling on the performanc­es during the year under review, said that the coconut kernel is being imported to mix with the country’s coconut grown in Sri Lanka which leads to nullify the claim that the processed coconut exported is still ‘ pure’ Sri Lankan coconut.

He said that the current year started with a prolonged drought and the lowest crop production of the past decade, resulting in the consumer price of coconut exceeding Rs. 120 per nut although the farm-gate price of coconut remained below Rs. 60. The government was compelled to find solutions to bring down the consumer price of coconut and also to have a reasonable farm-gate price for the growers, he indicated.

Their associatio­n and the Coconut Research Institute ( CRI), he said, had warned the Government of the danger in importing de- husked coconuts to Sri Lanka for industrial usage for export.

However, he pointed out that they had to cooperate with the move to permit frozen coconut kernel imports despite their reservatio­ns with the understand­ing that this action would help to mitigate the rising prices being paid by the consumer.

He said that they were not complacent to this move and drew attention to the need to adhere to quantity and quality controls in place for the frozen coconut kernel imports. Mr. Samarakoon pointed out, “we have also requested the authoritie­s to address immediatel­y, the dangers that could cause the good name of Sri Lankan coconut products in the world market if continued to market as Sri Lankan produce with import substituti­on.”

On the sidelines of the event, Mr Samarakoon told the Business Times that the solution for the coconut scarcity lies in increasing production and said that their associatio­n is doing their best in this regard.

He said that vast acreage of land fragmentat­ion started in 1972 with the Land Reforms Commission limiting ownership of land to 50 acres rendering economies of scale of managing plantation­s difficult.

He said that the limit has to be extended to at least 250 acres to economical­ly viable coconut plantation­s. While the coconut triangle is within the Western and North Western provinces, he indicated that the demand for industrial and housing is also more in these provinces where coconut lands are then fragmented.

Another danger looming large to destroy the coconut plantation­s is the fear of spreading diseases and they have been continuous­ly demanding the government to implement a national programme to control pests and diseases ( mite, black beetle and red weevil), though the counter measures are not implemente­d at the national level.

The need now, he said is to open up new land for cultivatio­n and said that they have requested the government to open up at least 50,000 acres for new coconut growing.

He said that the market should be driven on demand and supply and they disagree with the prevailing quota system. The demand today, he said is for different coconut based value- added products rather than confining it to only desiccated coconut.

He said that the farm-gate price should not be determined by the selling price of DC as other coconut-based product manufactur­ing is growing at a much higher pace while bringing much more foreign exchange per coconut to the country. Therefore, he said that the DC millers should either look to introducin­g improved technologi­es to lower the production cost or move into new products that would give them increased revenue.

In addition, Mr Samarakoon indicated that the DC millers should change their production from batch processing to continuous production to ensure efficient utilizatio­n of resources and raw material.

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