January 15, 2020

Sri Lanka to ban import of corn by Jan. 15

Sri Lanka will ban the importation of corn starting Jan. 15 to protect local farmers ahead of the harvest in February, the Department of Agriculture said.

The poultry industry, however, has opposed the ban. In a letter sent to the government, the All Island Poultry Association of Sri Lanka claimed that it would further increase their costs of production, the Asian Agribiz reported.

However, CIC Poultry Farm's CEO, Ajith Weerasinghe, told Asian Agribiz that the ban would not affect feed prices. "We were given licenses to import in December 2019, so our shipments will come in this month [January]", he explained.

Sri Lanka produced 244,1000 tonnes of corn in 2018, an increase from just 42,1000 tonnes in 2004. The country's corn production has grown at an average annual rate of 16.59%.

Its annual corn requirement is about 200,000 tonnes, of which about 125,000 tonnes is imported, mainly for the animal feed industry, according to the agriculture department's Field Crop Research and Development Institute.

The country devotes around 30,000 hectares of land to corn annually, the second-highest extent of land next to rice.