Vegetable imports cause foreign exchange loss amidst COVID-19
Subsequent to soaring prices owing to short supply during a drought and then floods, Sri Lanka has imported a considerable quantity of vegetables, potatoes and big onions during the first quarter this year spending millions of dollars more than the last year, Central Bank data showed.
Bad weather conditions hindered all agricultural activity where farmers faced great difficulty as some crops were completely destroyed, leading to an unusual increase in the prices of vegetables.
The prices of beans, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, brinjals, pumpkin, and snake gourd were selling at an astounding 250 per cent higher than prices last year.
This was due to the delay of newly harvested crops from upcountry and northern cultivations, the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute revealed.
A senior research officer of the institute said the demand and supply varies from March to April and July to September, but this year’s shortage has led to a massive increase in prices.
On the verge of the COVID-19 outbreak the country has imported vegetables amounting to US$104.07 million during the first quarter 2020 compared to $71million in the same period last year, Central Bank data revealed.
According to this data, the country has spent $35.9 million worth of vegetables in January this year compared to $24.6 million in the same month last year while the value of vegetable imports in February was$30 million against $19.9 million in the same month of 2019 and March it was $38.8 million against$27.2 million last year.
A considerable quantity of carrots, beans, broccoli, celery mushrooms, and potatoes had been imported to meet the demand of tourist hotels and the instant food industry, Agriculture Ministry sources said.
These stocks were imported during the first quarter 2020 before the COVID-19 prohibition on non-essential imports including vegetables to curtail imports with the view to saving much needed foreign exchange, a senior official of the ministry revealed.
But bringing down of vegetables, potatoes and big onions for three months at a time when the tourist and instant food industries were about to crash has resulted in waste of thousands of tonnes of vegetables, several traders said.