Designate coconut cultivation as an export-oriented crop– CGASL

The Coconut Growers’ Association made a request to Agriculture and Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera to designate coconut cultivation as an export-oriented crop.

The Association also points out that many problems have arisen in this sector due to the fact that despite the export of coconuts from the country, coconut exports are still not considered as an export-oriented crop.

The officials of the Plantation Ministry, the Coconut Growers’ Association discussed about the coconut cultivation, export as well as domestic coconut consumption on Tuesday (14).

Although the daily requirement of our country is Rs. 4.8 million coconuts, the daily production of coconuts in this country is Rs. three million. Therefore, even though there is a shortage of coconuts, 75 percent of the total coconut harvest is used for local consumption and the remaining 25 percent is exported.

The annual income generated by coconut export is US$ 850 million. In order to increase this export income to US$ two billion, coconut should be named as a plantation crop targeted for export, because the demand for coconut in the international market is increasing day-by-day, and because of the high quality of coconut in our country, there is still a high demand for coconut cultivation, the association emphasized.

Also, if the price of coconut is to be revised, the Association requested the Minister to discuss with the coconut industrialists and come to an agreement with the Treasury to revise the price.

In the last ten years, among the crops grown in Sri Lanka, the amount of cultivated land has continuously increased only in coconut cultivation. Accordingly, 100,000 acres of new coconuts have been planted in the last ten years.

They also said that because there is a high demand for other products related to coconut, there are many advantages to be gained by naming coconut as a plantation crop targeted for export.

Agriculture and Plantation Industry Ministry Secretary Janaka Dharmakirthi and other officials joined this discussion.

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