The Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe - Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Co-operative Development
The Minister said agricultural marketing centres previously managed by multiple authorities and landowners have been brought under a single fully state-owned entity with a unified legal and procedural framework. He rejected claims that a private company was being created, and said the objective is to improve facilities such as packaging, help farmers bring produce to market, reduce post-harvest losses, and stabilize consumer prices.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, as explained, these centres were under various authorities and landowners (Mahaweli, CGR, Divisional Secretariats, District Secretariats, etc.). We have now brought them under one entity with a unified legal and procedural framework to develop facilities. Claims that we were creating a private company were false; this is a fully state-owned company. Our objective is to provide services and facilities—packaging included—to bring farmers’ produce to market, minimize post-harvest losses, and stabilize prices for consumers.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Wednesday, 6 May 2026 ·No. 23541 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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/lk/speeches/5468
Cite as: The Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe - Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Co-operative Development. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 6 May 2026. No. 23541. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/5468