Posted on April 12th, 2021
Kelum Bandara Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Sri Lanka will import 39,000 tonnes of dehydrated coconut chips to manufacture coconut oil to meet the local demand for edible oil without any shortage to be triggered otherwise by the ban imposed on palm oil, an official said.
The Trade Ministry will sign a forward sales agreement with the All Ceylon Traditional Coconut Oil Producers’ Association to obtain coconut oil at Rs. 450 a bottle. The Association’s representatives informed this at a press conference along with Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardane and State Minister for Co-operative Services, Marketing Development and Consumer Protection Lasantha Alagiyawanna.
LankaWeb – SL to import dehydrated coconut chips to manufacture coconut oil lankaweb.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lankaweb.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The recent scandals involving sugar and coconut oil should point the country to the dangers of private sector mafias and rent seekers. These are not your typical consumer goods: they are fast moving necessities, consumed by every class, from every income level.
In the hands of racketeers and rent seekers, ensuring the most rudimentary health and safety checks for such necessities seems to have taken a backseat to profiteering off them. While it is unfair to take the government to task over such failings, it is the government that has the final discretion in rectifying those failings.
And yet, the question can (validly) be raised whether public perceptions of these scandals reflect what’s really going on. For obvious reasons, it is the government that’s accused of being complicit with and profiteering from alliances with dubious interests in the sugar and coconut oil import mafia. Such allegations, for me at least, limit these scandals to two frames: the present government and t
COLOMBO (News1st): Samples of coconut oil in which the levels of Aflatoxin containing 30 parts per billion will not be sold in the market, a senior - Get the latest breaking news and top stories from Sri Lanka, the latest political news, sports news, weather updates, exam results, business news, entertainment news, world news and much more from News 1st, Sri Lanka's leading news network.
Share:
COLOMBO (News 1st): The annual requirement of coconut oil in the country currently stands at 80,000 metric tonnes and only 30 percent of the country’s demand is produced locally, the Coconut Development Authority (CDA) revealed on Friday (Apr. 02).
“Thereby, 70 percent of the local coconut oil requirement needs to be imported,” Piyasena Edirimanne, the Director of the Coconut Development Authority pointed out.
According to Edirimanne, the coconut harvest in the country is not sufficient to meet the demand of industries related to coconut products and domestic requirements.
As a solution to this issue, the cabinet approval was granted for the importation of dehydrated coconut to increase the local coconut oil production, CDA Chairman Piyasena Edirimanne told News 1st.