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Shakila Ifham
January 1, 2023
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The Ministry of Agriculture has planned to implement a program to encourage exporters of agricultural products in Sri Lanka from the year 2023.
Accordingly, Minister of Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation Mahinda Amaraweera held a discussion with a group of entrepreneurs who export agricultural products in Sri Lanka last week. This discussion was held at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agricultural Research and Training Institute, Colombo 07, and a group of businessmen engaged in the field of agricultural products exports participated in it.
“Many countries in the world are engaged in the export of agricultural products and earn a large amount of foreign exchange. But agricultural products are still exported very little in our country. The main reason for this is that our products are not properly prepared for the international market,” Minister
He said that the government has decided to provide maximum facilities for the production of agricultural products aimed at export.
Accordingly, the 2023 budget has given a lot of money for the promotion of the export agriculture sector. There is a huge demand in the international market for grains such as sesame, green grams, soya beans, as well as vegetables and fruits produced in our country. But still we have not been able to provide a supply that matches the demand.
The measures taken by the Ministry of Agriculture’s Agricultural Modernization Project to send sour bananas to the foreign market were evaluated here. Although 12,500 kg are exported to Dubai every week, although it is a small amount, they appreciated the effort to introduce the process of producing sour bananas in export condition and processing them in a manner suitable for the foreign market.
Commenting on this, the Minister stated that due to the failure of the 2021 Maha season, the government had to spend USD 400 million on importing rice from abroad in 2022, but he said with confidence that he would not have to import a grain of rice from abroad next year.
Secretary of the Ministry Mr. Gunadasa Samarasinghe and others participated in this event.
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