Coconut
Development Authority (CDA) is setting up a Business Facility Unit at the
Coconut Processing Research Division in a bid to celebrate International
Coconut Day today. The CDA aims to broaden the coconut-based product's market
in Sri Lanka internationally with the new device, a statement from the CDA
said.
The authority
will be celebrating International Coconut Day today at the Lunuwila Coconut
Research Institute (CRI) with the participation of Plantation Minister Dr
Ramesh Pathirana and Minister Arundika Fernando, Minister of State for
Plantation Diversification, Kithul, Palmyrah, and Rubber Cultivation and
Promotion and Related Industrial Goods Manufacturing and Export.
The CDA also
plans to introduce a 'Coconut App,' which will combine the CDA and extension
services. Also, a newly developed coconut variety, along with a standard logo
for high-quality coconut oil, and a repellent for red beetle species that
attack coconut plantations, must be introduced.
The CDA has
implemented a series of programs related to the production and extension of
coconut cultivation under the project 'Coconut Development Week,' in
conjunction with the International Coconut Day celebrations. At the same time,
a program will also conduct today to determine the highest foreign exchange
earning exporters from a coconut-based manufacturing business in 2019, the CDA
said.
The program
involves planting coconut saplings in government institutions grounds, temples,
and other places of worship, and farmers' production programs for coconut
cultivation, mobile coconut sapling marketing services, farmers' meetings, and
field programs.
In Sri Lanka,
coconut prices had steadily picked up from an average of 38,215 when auctions
resumed after a break due to the coronavirus crisis on April 09. However, in
the first quarter of 2020, coconut production was reported to have declined
from the year-earlier by 12.6 00 per cent, which is 679 million nuts.
The CDA, with
the participation of Plantation Minister Ramesh Pathirana and State Minister of
Coconut, Kithul, Palmyrah, Rubber Cultivation Promotion, and Associated
Industrial Goods Manufacturing and Export Diversification Arundika Fernando, is
scheduled to celebrate the international coconut day on September 2 at the
Lunuwila Coconut Research Institute.
OSL Take: The state
of Sri Lanka currently focuses on developing the county's agriculture sector
with particular emphasis on export crops. Organisations have planned a host of
incentives to persuade businesses to build the export agriculture sector. This approach
has stemmed from the opening up of business/investment opportunities in Sri
Lanka's export agriculture sector.
Foreign
companies engaged in the production of hybrid coconut seeds, display, and
distribution of predatory mites to control mite damage and construction of
efficient modern smokehouses for drying rubber could explore investmentopportunities in Sri Lanka.
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