Business agriculture
More rubber products for export
Ramani Kangaraarachchi
The Rubber Development Department with the assistance of the
Industrial Development Board is to introduce fifty new small scale
entrepreneurs to the industry within this year to manufacture more
rubber products for export.
Director, Rubber Products Development and Service Centre A.L.
Chandrasiri said Sri Lanka uses only 70 per cent of total natural rubber
for products and the balance 30 per cent goes to the export market as
raw material depriving the country from receiving a large amount of
foreign exchange. The Government has made arrangements to export the
total rubber production as finished products.
As an initial step, the first 50 people selected will be trained in
five areas to manufacture rubber products such as rubber bushes, rings,
seals, rubber and metal mixed products and rubber toys.
The participants only will have to pay 25 per cent of the course fee
and 75 per cent will be met by the Rubber Development Department. This
will be an annual program in the future according to the Director.
Meanwhile the demand from land owners to cultivate rubber is
increasing rapidly and the Rubber Development Department has taken
action with the assistance of the private sector to meet this
requirement shortly. Twenty three people were trained recently by the
Rubber Research Institute on how to produce quality rubber plants for
nurseries.
Status of the coconut industry
Coconut industry plays a pivotal role in sustaining a viable economy
at village, district and regional levels in Sri Lanka.
Despite this dominant role of coconuts in the country’s economy and
culture the area under coconut is reducing substantially around 5,000 ha
per annum in all parts of the country.
However, the national annual coconut production remained stable
within the range of 2650-2750 million nuts despite the above loss of
land due to increase in coconut productivity over the years.
A greater proportion of coconut produced nearly 70 per cent is
directly consumed as the second main component of daily food recipes.
However, export of coconut products account for Rs. 19.3 billion per
annum, and it is 2 per cent of the GDP including processing.
The graphs shows the expected demands and production predictions
according to the generated yield for 2006 to 2008. |
