Half self-sufficiency in sugar by 2015

Shirley Wijesinghe

The Government plans to achieve 50 percent self-sufficiency in sugar by 2015 with the opening of five new sugar manufacturing factories - one in Kurunegala, two in Anuradhapura, one in Siyambalanduwa and another in Bibile to meet the local demand for sugar, Supplementary Plantation Crops Development Minister Dharmadasa Banda said.

The annual per capita consumption of sugar in Sri Lanka is around 30 kg and the total annual requirement of sugar in the country is around 550,000 tons. But only about 50,000 tons of sugar are produced locally and the balance requirement has to be imported, R.M. Dharmadasa Banda added.

He was addressing the 25th anniversary of the Sugarcane Research Institute (SRI) at the BMICH last Friday. For this purpose huge sums have to be invested. The Ministry has decided to go in for a Public Private/Partnership (PPP) of 51:49 percent inviting local as well as international investors.

Some are being processed at the moment and the Government would like to offer a full guarantee to them to borrow money from foreign banks.

Minister Dharmadasa Banda said during the last few months the sugar prices in the world market have increased substantially and this may cause our expenditure on sugar imports to increase by around Rs. 30 billion in 2010.

The by products of the sugar industry are successfully applied to enhance the power capacity of the national electrical power generation grid. It will also increase the production of ethanol which can be used as an alternative source for fuel, he said.

Appreciating the service of SRI during the past 25 years, Minister Dharmadasa Banda said that the SRI has been able to introduce a number of new sugarcane varieties such as SL 8306, SLI 1221, SL 88-116 which have higher cane and sugar yields with a high tolerance rate to pest diseases. Last year SRI scientists developed better economical crop management and fertilizing practices through research and experience, he said.

SRI established a number of extension offices in sugar growing areas to assist sugar farmers to extend its services.