The Palm Oil Industry Association at its first ever Annual General meeting held in Colombo yesterday asked the government to give them a proper hearing and a tangible solution to proceed with the industry activities in the future without any disturbance.
Dr. Rohan Fernando, President of Palm Oil Industry Association said the industry is currently grappling with numerous issues in a big way; mainly due to myths that have created a fear psychosis by certain individuals with vested interest regarding this commercially viable crop in the country.
He said further that certain groups with vested interest have vehemently opposed the cultivation of these crops, citing it poses threats to the health of the people and to the environment.
More importantly, he said the industry has been neglected and prevented from the cultivating this enormously beneficial crop due to one sided, baseless report, presented by the Central Environmental Authority.
“It was not long ago that the government of Sri Lanka approved the cultivation of 20,000 hectares of land to be cultivated in palm oil which is only three percent of the total land extent under plantation crops in the country.
Subsequently, there was an approval granted to import palm oil seeds approximately 500,000 or more with the approval of the quarantine authorities and that was duly done using their own funds without seeking any subsidies from the government. Then all these plants were imported, nurseries set up and plants started growing. Then came an unfortunate report from the Central Environmental Authority which was absolutely one sided, baseless and today it has created untold setbacks in the palm oil industry.
I’m calling this an unfair report because there was a committee who looked into this subject but not all the members of the committee signed the report and it was presented in the most unfortunate manner. We are facing all these issues today because of the damage that report has caused.
As a result, regional plantation companies have close to 550,000 plants to the value of over Rs. 500 million, rotting in their nurseries. Before long, they will be useless to be planted.
This unfortunate report has caused all the damage today and created untold setbacks in the palm oil industry,” Dr. Fernando said.
As per the government guidelines, the maximum extent of oil palm that could be cultivated is 20,000 ha.
“Currently we’re not in a position to cultivate 20,000 hectares of land, which has been earmarked for cultivating oil palm. He said further that he can’t understand the rationale behind preventing the cultivation of this commercially viable crop which has the ability to generate foreign exchange earnings in a big way.”
He also made a request to the government to review this unfortunate situation with certain academics, scientists who are knowledgeable on this subject. Globally, the value of the palm oil business is US $60 billion with Malaysia, Indonesia producing 85% of the world supply of the product while the cumulative value of palm oil industry in Sri Lanka is Rs. 26 billion.
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