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by Ravi Ladduwahetty

Dialog project in Nikeweratiya opens - Minister of Power and Energy, Karu Jayasuriya and Industries Minister Rohitha Bogollagama commissioned the Dialog GSM’s mobile phone project in Nikeweratiya at Kurunegala district last week. Dialog GSM plans to provide 10,000 mobile phone connections in the area through this project.

The introduction of an organised auction and marketing system in the coconut growing districts of Sri Lanka will circumvent the need for importing coconuts from India, Minister of Plantation Industries Lakshman Kiriella told the Daily News.

This follows news reports quoting Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Ravi Karunanayake as having said that coconuts should be imported from India on a priority basis to not only the demand but also to combat the high local prices.

Minister Kiriella said that there were adequate supplies of coconuts in the market and what was needed was a method for collection of the nuts which could fetch better prices in the market and at the same time, give the producer the opportunity of getting prices for their harvest.He said that the Ministry of Plantation Industries had conducted the purchase of coconuts on an experimental auction basis last week which was proved to be successful where 30,000 nuts were purchased at the rate of 11.50 and sold at Rs. 13.50.

He said that the Government could organise the collection and the sale of the untapped coconuts in the market through the Cooperative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) and other institutions such as the Cooperative network

The Minister said that the indications were good that the national production of coconuts would rise dramatically following measures taken by the ministry to introduce state of the art measures such as drip irrigation and the susbsidies allocated by the Ministry to coconut growers, which also includes the all - important moisture retention susbididy.

The introduction of the drip irrigation system would be instrumental in increasing production by 30 percent in 2003, by 60 percent in 2004 and by 90 percent in 2005,he said.

This should set the pace for self sufficiency in the production of coconuts.

Arrangements have also been made for the purchase of Rs. 100 million worth of equipment for drip irrigation from the Indian credit line, he said.

Meanwhile, industry sources point out that no amount of local marketing or auction system, however, effective they are, will be able to bridge the deficit as the demand for coconuts is 3.2 million nuts per annum and the supply is only 2.1 million nuts, which leaves a deficit of 1.2 billion nuts, which could not be made available locally.

They point out that the imported coconut from India was going to be price competitive in the light of the high coconut prices prevailing in the local market. They point out that it was the middle class which was spearheading a campaign against the import of coconuts as their sales and the pricing would get affected.

The Daily News in the lead story of the its February 28, 2002 edition exclusively reported that the reason for the dramatic countrywide shortage of coconuts was the withering of over 500,000 coconut trees following the decision of the former PA regime to remove the Moisture Retention Subsidy allocated to coconut growers in 1996.

The news report also quoted Minister Kiriella as having said that the present crisis would not have been prevalent if the subsidy was continuously allocated.

This would have meant that these withered 500,000 coconut trees would have survived the drought which persisted at that time, he said.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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