Coconut sale price lower than COP:Coconut growers

Coconut growers in Sri Lanka have blamed the government as the root cause of the crisis in the country’s ages-old coconut oil industry production since for some time now the authorities have allowed the import of large quantities of palm oil, some quantities which are suspected to be substandard and injurious to human consumption.

At the 25th AGM of the Coconut Growers Association of Sri Lanka ( CGA) held recently in Colombo, Jayantha Samarakoon, President, CGA made this assertion, saying: “The CGA faces the challenge of low farm gate price for coconut and the main cause is the import of edible oil (especially palm oil) and adulteration of coconut oil with the palm oil”.

He said that the Coconut Research Institute ( CRI) prediction is that the coconut yield for 2019 would be over 3,000 million nuts, higher than last year. But the crop increase did not benefit the growers as the cost of product per nut is more than Rs. 30 while the farm gate price is as low as Rs. 20.

Pure coconut oil mixed with suspected, substandard imported palm oil has now inundated the entire coconut oil market and sold at a very cheap rate. This has knocked down pure coconut oil sales from the market as the production of coconut oil is rather expensive and thus they could not compete with adulterated coconut oil which is freely available now at a very low price.

Further as a result of this mixing and selling of substandard palm oil with pure coconut oil, the CGA has pointed an accusing finger at the government for not adequately checking the adulteration which affects the health of the nation.

The government is irresponsible in allowing this adulterated coconut oil sold which is freely available in the market in loose form, growers allege.

They further noted that if the adulteration is stopped forthwith and if the government adequately supports the revival of producing pure coconut oil by opening more and more coconut oil mills, as there is enormous international market for pure coconut oil, this could be readily exported and also sold in the local open market. Excess coconut production could be used for oil production.

Mr. Samarakoon said that they are persuading the government to provide the subsidies for the improvement of the productivity on coconut plantations and to prepare the National Policy for Coconut Industry in Sri Lana.

He urged the government to introduce a strong mechanism to regulate the import of palm oil and to prepare strong legislation to stop adulteration. He pointed out that earlier palm oil imports were banned, but it was lifted opening the flood gates for the import of low quality palm oil.

He emphasised that the worst debacle for the coconut industry is the low farm gate price though there is ample coconut yields and said that they are computing the cost of production of coconut with the CRI.

During the question and answer time, there was a barrage of queries from growers on the issue of low farm-gate price and that this low price compels the growers to abandon cultivation. Navin Dissanayake, Minister of Plantation Industries who was the chief guest at the occasion, gave a patient hearing on the woes of the growers and made an elaborate speech in explaining the situation.

During this session, Palitha Pelpola, Chairman, Coconut Cultivation Board, contested the growers computation of cost of production of a coconut that is at more than Rs. 30, saying that according to his knowledge of computation of COP of coconut in state- owned coconut estates is around Rs. 14 which created a stir among the growers. Growers immediately demanded the officials to divulge the correct details of this computation and to give them the name of estate so that they could themselves check the veracity of the official’s contention. The official declined to divulge the details.

The growers indicated that their figure is official as they were computed with the help of the CRI.