Tough times ahead for coconut industry
Sri Lanka’s coconut industry is likely to face serious issues in 3-5 years’ time as a result of a drop in exports and a lack of high yielding trees and because the authorities are not concerned with taking the right policy decisions that will move the industry in the right direction, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Coconut Industry and the Secretary of the Ceylon Desiccated Manufacturers Association Jason Samaranayaka said.
He told The Sunday Times Business that the months of September and October being the lean season the industry forecasts a nut fall of 2.4 billion nuts whereas the government revised its 3 billion nuts in 2025 to 2.7 billion nuts. But the main concern by the industry is that exporters are unlikely to accept orders for July and August as there are no proper forecasts and, should there be a high yield then the prices will drop as there are no export orders.
Mr. Samaranayaka said this will result in a collapse of the coconut prices by that time as a result of the excess supply since they will not be able to obtain orders without a proper forecast.
He noted that the export market will shift to purchasing from other origins. In fact, it was pointed out that most of the large scale millers have already moved out to other coconut exporting countries in a bid to ensure they are able to retain their business.
This will result in a drop in foreign exchange revenue earnings for Sri Lanka since customers and manufacturers have moved elsewhere.
Sri Lanka in the past 20 years was renowned for its desiccated coconut (DC) which meant the island nation was able to grab about a 40-50 per cent of the global market in this sector.
However, today due to unfavourable policy decisions Sri Lanka has been able to retain only about 15 per cent of the global DC market share.
Mr. Samaranayaka noted that authorities at the Coconut Research Institute (CRI) were not interested in finding a solution to the issue of importing coconuts by working out the quarantine process, adding that they had approached the authorities with the possibility of importing coconut saplings from India as plants there yield higher nuts.
Sri Lankan saplings produce 55 nuts per tree per year whereas the Indian plants generate 100-120 nuts per tree per year.
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