The Hon. Ajith Gihan
Hon. Ajith Gihan asked the Minister whether NAQDA has a programme to substantially expand inland freshwater fish production to meet national protein needs while also supporting export sectors such as ornamental fish and shrimp. He cited an annual fish consumption requirement of about 600,000 metric tons, with marine capture contributing around 300,000 metric tons and inland production only about 32,000 metric tons, arguing that inland output must increase significantly.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Minister, my first supplementary: NAQDA should both boost exports (ornamental, shrimp) and expand domestic freshwater fish production for nutrition. Annual fish consumption needs are about 600,000 metric tons; marine capture gives about 300,000 MT, and the inland sector must meet a significant share, yet inland production is only ~32,000 MT. We must increase inland fish tenfold to meet protein needs. Can you present a programme to meet national protein requirements?
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Tuesday, 5 May 2026 ·No. 23546 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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/lk/speeches/19754
Cite as: The Hon. Ajith Gihan. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 5 May 2026. No. 23546. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/19754