The government has decided to buy pepper from farmers within two weeks to maintain a stable price in the local market, Primary Industries Minister Daya Gamage said.
He said that in ordr to implement the project he would work within this week to get funds allocated from the Treasury following obtaining the Cabinet approval.
He made these observations yesterday during a press conference held at the Information Department auditorium while refuting the allegation by Joint Opposition member Ranjith Soysa that the pepper price has dropped in the local market due to the import of pepper from Vietnam.
“The pepper is not imported from Vietnam to Sri Lanka for local consumption,” Minister Gamage said.
“The reason for the drop in pepper prices in the local market is due to a drop in the world market.This is due to an excess pepper harvest this year,”the Minister said.
He said that the annual pepper consumption was met by a harvest of 300,000 tonnes, but this year’s harvest has topped 450,000 tons.
Minister Gamage said that there is a BOI company that exports processed pepper.
“It only had imported 500 tons of pepper for its production,” Minister Gamage said.
“It had processed 220 tons of pepper and had already exported. I sent my officials today and checked if they had the rest with them. The rest was in their stores. Therefore, it had not been released to the local market. It is pointless to stage protests but to find a solution,” the Minister said.
Primary Industries Minister Gamage said that pepper in Sri Lanka is of a high standard. He added that India does not impose a tax on pepper that they import from Sri Lanka but they impose a tax on pepper imported from Vietnam.
“We have to find out if Indian traders get Vietnamese pepper imported to India via Sri Lanka with the support of Sri Lanka,”the Minister said.
The Minister also pointed out such a practice of exporting Vietnamese pepper via Sri Lanka to India is not healthy for the Sri Lankan pepper export market as substandard pepper would be damaging to the country.