Officials asked to submit proposals to safeguard 3,000 local coconut oil production manufacturers

Agriculture and Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera instructed local coconut oil production industrialists and officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Plantation Industries to submit a proposal regarding how to implement plans in the future to save 3,000 local coconut oil manufacturers.

A discussion on the problems faced by local coconut oil producers was held on Wednesday (07) at the Ministry. Coconut Development Authority Chairman Prof. Roshan Perera and other officials participated in the discussion.

Currently, the amount of coconut oil required for our country’s annual consumption is 290,000 metric tons. But only 40,000 metric tons are produced in our country. The remaining requirement of 250,000 metric tons of coconut oil is imported in the form of coconut oil, refined and unrefined oil.

In the domestic market, the prices of imported coconut oil are low and the prices of local coconut oil are high. Because of this, the consumer has resorted to consuming more imported coconut oil, so the industrialists said that there is a problematic situation regarding the running of their factories. They also requested the Minister to remove the VAT currently charged on domestic coconut oil. However, the Minister said that the Finance Ministry is currently holding a discussion on the VAT imposed on coconut oil and advised them to quickly prepare the proposals containing their demands as industrialists in order to protect the local coconut oil industry.

The Minister said that he would be given this proposal within a week, after which the proposal would be submitted to the Cabinet and necessary steps would be taken to implement it appropriately. However, the Minister also said that the consumers have a problem with the quality of the coconut oil and other oils currently available in the market. There is no recommendation for the consumer to easily identify which coconut oil is suitable for consumption sold in the market and the Coconut Development Authority was informed to immediately submit a certificate and a sticker for coconut oil packaging to easily identify the coconut oil suitable for consumption.

The Minister also mentioned that although the Coconut Development Authority has issued a five-star mark to identify coconut oil suitable for consumption, the public has no awareness in this regard.

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