Plantation companies will sustain a cumulative loss of more than Rs. 500 million within months due to policy inconsistencies and vacillation by the Government on a well-regulated expansion of Sri Lanka’s oil palm cultivation, the sector’s apex industry association has warned.
The Palm Oil Industry Association (POIA) said 356,000 oil palm plants imported on the strength of a Government decision to expand cultivation had been maturing in nurseries for more than three years/
This was due to the Government’s failure to address concerns arising from falsehoods and disinformation spread by misled activists and lobbyists with vested interests.
“About 40% of these trees may already be unviable and we fear that the entire stock may have to be destroyed within the next two months, unless the Government resolves this matter expeditiously,” POIA President Dr. Rohan Fernando said.
The POIA represents cultivators as well as refiners, processors, manufacturers, marketers and sellers of palm oil and other products of the oil palm, who have cumulatively invested Rs. 26 billion in the industry.
Sri Lanka has less than 11,000 hectares under oil palm – just over 1% of the extents under tea, rubber and coconut.
(LIN)