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Plans to import coconuts suspended
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The Sri Lankan government has suspended plans to import coconuts as a way of tackling rising prices and a national shortage.
Coconuts are a staple food for the island but agricultural experts say any imports would create a major risk of plant disease.
Faced with diminishing numbers and reduced quality of coconuts, the government declared last month that it would resort to importing the nuts from India and Malaysia. The opposition leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has greeted this with scorn. "In the past Sri Lanka was not only self-sufficient in coconuts – we exported them to the world for 750 years! Now we don’t have coconuts and we’re importing them from Kerala . We can say this is a world record and ask for it to be put in the Guinness Book of World Records. "Said Wickremesinghe. How ever a senior official in the responsible ministry has now admitted that no firm decision can be made on the matter because coconuts coming in to Sri Lanka would have to be quarantined. The head of the semi-official Coconut Research Institute, Dr C. Jayasekera, told the BBC that the rules for this are strict. She said various coconut diseases were rife in producing countries including India, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. Some, known as wilt, turn the trees yellow and reduce the coconut count. Dr Jayasekera said that generally any palm products could only be imported in small quantities for use in experiments. The ministry official said the government was keeping a close watch on the cost of coconuts because the current average price – 40 rupees, or 36 US cents – was too much for ordinary people. Sarath Fernando, a farmers’ rights advocate, said it was time for the authorities to start subsidising the cost of coconuts, which are used here in curry, cooking oil and chutney among other things. He told the BBC the crisis arose because large palm estates had been broken up for houses to be built and because private companies had bought excessive numbers of coconuts to make powdered coconut milk for export. Agriculturalists say Sri Lanka has had its own wilt disease in the southern districts of Matara, Galle and Hambantota but that it has been successfully contained within this area and prevented from spreading to the area known as the “coconut triangle” lying to the north of Colombo. |
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India's frustration with Sri Lanka over Tamils