The Hon. Upali Samarasingha - Deputy Minister of Co-operative Development
The Deputy Minister responded on behalf of the absent Minister to concerns raised about potato farmers in Nuwara Eliya and Badulla, noting that Jaffna is also a significant cultivation area. He said the Government seeks to balance protection of domestic producers with fair prices and quality food for consumers, within a production-based economic policy and annual planning with relevant ministries and the private sector. He stated that because national consumption is about 200,000 MT while 2019 domestic production was 101,642 MT, imports remain necessary, but measures are needed to protect local producers during harvest periods.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Mr. Speaker, as the Trade, Commerce, Food Security, and Co-operative Development Minister is not present, I respond to Hon. Chamara Sampath.
¶ 02 We appreciate the concerns raised for farmers in Nuwara Eliya and Badulla, and note that significant potato cultivation also occurs in Jaffna District. Annually, at this time (March), short-term measures are requested: impose a levy or suspend imports. The Government’s core policy is a production-based economy, protecting domestic producers while ensuring consumers receive quality food at fair prices. Our annual plans, with other Ministries and the private sector, aim to avoid shortages.
¶ 03 Given that national potato consumption is about 200,000 MT per year and domestic output in 2019 (both seasons) was 101,642 MT, imports are necessary to cover the gap. However, as the Hon. Member said, we must protect domestic producers during harvests, while ensuring consumers get quality at fair prices.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Friday, 14 March 2025 ·No. 1744281136023320 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
- Permalink
/lk/speeches/26544
Cite as: The Hon. Upali Samarasingha - Deputy Minister of Co-operative Development. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 14 March 2025. No. 1744281136023320. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/26544