Coconut growers are angry over the decision to import coconuts – for the first time in Sri Lanka’s history -- saying the rise in price was no fault of theirs and warned that imports could bring in ‘unwanted diseases’.
“During November and December there is normally a drop in production but this time output fell more than anticipated as growers are reducing on costly fertilizer application,” said J.V.R. Dias, a former President of the Coconut Growers Association and a veteran grower himself.
“Furthermore we have repeatedly asked the government to provide us a fertilizer subsidy which could be utilised from the Cess on imports of edible oil. But our efforts have fallen on deaf ears.” With prices rising sharply in both coconuts and eggs, the government has allowed the import of these essential commodities.
Mr Dias says coconut imports from Kerala, India will not solve the price problem as the Kerala coconut is small in size against the Sri Lankan coconut. “It’s like comparing a coffee (tiny in size) cup to a tea cup,” he said, adding that another problem is that these nut imports could bring in all kinds of unwanted diseases and fungus.
“This is a sad state of affairs for producer/farmers,” he said, adding that with more farmers not applying costly, imported fertilizer, the crop situation would worsen. “This is a classic case of (the authorities) cutting the nose to spite the face,” he added.
Mr Dias also blamed palm oil imports for the crisis in the coconut industry, saying cheap imports were ruining local prices. “Either reduce our costs or provide a subsidy.”
Asked whether coconut lands were getting fragmented and also being used for other development and scores of new housing schemes by private developers, he rejected the argument that land was being lost saying there are still millions of acres under coconut cultivation and new land being created for coconut.
“The problem is essentially in the cost of the inputs,” he said.Other growers said a drought last year (2009) also contributed to the crisis. |
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