Desiccated coconut (DC) millers have requested the government to reduce the duty on imported palm oil to ensure a continuous supply of coconuts for their industry.
Millers say the industry had faced already a crisis mainly due to the high coconut prices.
They said that import duty on palm oil had increased the demand for coconuts causing the prices to skyrocket.
"The dramatic increase over the past 12 months in world palm oil prices has sharply increased the retail price of palm oil in Sri Lanka and the country’s duty structure for palm oil imports have not been revised for more than 12 months. This has caused palm oil price to reach a record level of Rs. 150 per Kilo during June, 2007 with further increase estimated to be Rs. 174 per kilo during July," said the industry sources.
The sources added that as a result of this, coconut prices had risen to record high levels, where it was no longer feasible to run desiccated coconut mills and requested the government to take drastic action to reduce the duty on palm oil.
However, in response to industry’s request Plantation Industries Minister D. M. Jayaratne said that the duty on imported palm oil would not be reduced but the government would take actions to provide coconut for a reasonable rate of around as Rs. 20 in order to remedy the situation.
According to the Minister, reducing the duty on palm oil would affect the country’s coconut cultivation and the coconut oil industry. He said that after a severe set back, local coconut oil industry has begun to boom at present and importation of more palm oil would impact on the coconut oil industry badly.
Meanwhile Coconut Development Authority Chairman D. J. Purasingha said that many coconut oil mill owners tend to produce unhealthy coconut oil mixing coconut oil with a greater amount of palm oil which is not hygienic at all. It was noted that if the amount of palm oil coming in to the country is minimised such adulteration would not take place.
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