President Maithripala Sirisena underscored the need to adopt a dynamic plan to increase agricultural exports, while endorsing quantitative and qualitative standards of agricultural crops.
President Sirisena was speaking at the 45th Annual Session of the International Pepper Community held at the Earl’s Regency, Kandy recently.
He further added that the government has taken various steps for the development of the pepper industry and even though pepper prices decreased recently, the government has provided the necessary reliefs to pepper farmers. During the 2015, Sri Lanka exported around 16,660 metric tons (Mts) of pepper compared to 8,031 Mts in 2014, registering a 107% growth . When compared to the average export of 9,519 Mts over the last 10 years, export in 2015 was the highest.
The Government of Sri Lanka has considered that pepper, in addition to cinnamon, was the most important export spice commodity. Pepper production is confined to a few countries in Asia including Sri Lanka and the Pacific, Brazil and Madagascar.
Currently, Sri Lanka ranks at fifth place in terms of area under pepper cultivation after India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Brazil, and seventh place in terms of production, with a world share of 5.7% in production.
Also, Sri Lanka is the fifth largest exporter of black pepper, after Vietnam, Brazil, Indonesia, and India.
However, productivity levels in the industry remain low, despite improvements seen over the years.
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