Sri Lanka eyes US $ 250mn World Bank loan to set up 5,000 export production villages
Plans to link Samurdhi recipients with the project
Spice and Allied Products Marketing Board to be reinstated
Spice and allied sector exports to reach US $ 1.5bn by 2022
Sri Lanka is discussing with the World Bank to obtain a US $ 250 million loan to set up 5,000 export production villages across the country, linking with 33 specialized agro and fish processing zones, which are being set up, Primary Industries and Social Empowerment Minister Daya Gamage revealed.
“The main objective of the programme is to furnish the necessary raw materials to prospective entrepreneurs to accommodate in 33 agro and fish processing zones, which are being established by my ministry,” he said.
He was speaking last week at the announcement of the Global Spice Road Symposium, in Colombo. Organised by the Global Spice Road Secretariat, the symposium is to be held at the BMICH, this July.
Under the first phase of the project, the Primary Industries and Social Empowerment Ministry will establish 1,000 export production villages in 300 divisional secretariats within the next two years.
Gamage noted that the cost of the project is estimated at Rs.50 billion and the World Bank is likely to provide a US $ 250 million loan to fund the project.
The ministry has already come up with a broad plan to link the Samurdhi programme with the export production village project, to tackle the poverty in the rural economy, by creating a new set of entrepreneurs.
He pointed out that Samurdhi has failed to garner the expected results in eradicating poverty as an alarming 83 percent of 1.4 million Samurdhi recipients have been receiving Samurdhi for the last 15 years, while another 850,000 people are on the waiting list to become Samurdhi recipients.
The government has targeted an additional export income of US $ 7-9 billion and 500,000 new employment opportunities once the export production villages and processing zones are established.
The 23 agro and 10 fish processing zones will manufacture valueadded products for export markets, which are sourced from the export producing villages.
The first three agri-processing zones are scheduled to be launched in the Galle, Ampara and Matale Districts, shortly.
Meanwhile, Gamage announced that the disbanded Spice and Allied Products Marketing Board would be reinstated with a Rs.1.4 billion budget allocation this year.
Meanwhile, he said that the original target set for the spice and allied sector to achieve US $ 1.5 billion in exports, including US $ 1 billion from cinnamon by 2025, would be able to reach three years ahead by 2022, due to the successful implementation of various projects.
He expects Sri Lanka will be able to earn US $ 6 billion from export agriculture, which includes the plantation sector, by 2022.
Gamage said five state universities—colombo, Kelaniya, Peradeniya, Ruhuna and Sri Jayewardenepura—are completing a state-funded research to establish Sri Lanka as the only true exporter of genuine cinnamon, which has significant medicinal properties.
Sri Lanka currently exports an 80 percent requirement of genuine cinnamon to the world market.
The minister emphasised that Sri Lanka plans to market medicinal properties of “true cinnamon”, against cassia, utilising on the research conducted by the state universities.
He further said that Sri Lanka has already diversified its cinnamon exports away from Mexico and penetrating into highincome markets such as Europe and the United States. He noted that Mexico, Sri Lanka’s largest cinnamon export market now only constitutes to 39 percent of Sri Lanka’s cinnamon export share compared with 52 percent few years ago.