India’s National Cooperative Exports Limited (NCEL) and the Sri Lanka Consumer Cooperative Societies Federation (COOPFED) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Monday to facilitate the supply of essential food items from India to Sri Lanka.
NCEL Managing Director Anupam Kaushi signed for the Indian organisation and COOPFED Chairman Dr. Shantha Jayaratne for the Sri Lankan federation, Daily Mirror reported.
Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Santosh Jha and Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development Wasantha Samarasinghe attended the signing.
The agreement is intended to move essential food commodities between the two countries through their respective cooperative organisations, rather than through conventional commercial importers alone.
Trade talks alongside the signing
Jha and Samarasinghe separately held discussions on bilateral trade and commercial matters. Those talks covered the updating of the India–Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement, in force since 2000 and the subject of repeated attempts at expansion.
India is Sri Lanka’s largest source of imports, and the cooperative sector is a significant part of the domestic retail network for staples through COOPFED and Lanka Sathosa outlets.
Not reported
The report does not say which commodities the arrangement covers, what volumes or pricing terms are envisaged, when supplies would begin, or how long the memorandum runs. It does not state whether the arrangement involves any concessionary pricing, nor what stage the FTA revision talks have reached.
