The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Infrastructure has opened urgent consultations on a guaranteed minimum purchase price for coconuts as falling global rates squeeze local farmgate prices.
Agriculture Minister Samantha Vidyaratna chaired the meeting and directed officials to convene a broad consultation with the Coconut Cultivation Board, the Coconut Development Authority, the Coconut Research Institute, growers and processors to finalise the floor price and a longer industry-stabilisation package.
The minister tied the floor-price exercise to two production targets the government wants to hit by 2030: annual coconut output of 4,200 million nuts and USD 1.5 billion in export earnings from coconut-based products. Strengthening farmer incomes, protecting plantations and reducing on-farm production costs would all be needed to reach those numbers, Vidyaratna said.
Officials at the meeting argued that without immediate price intervention, falling international prices risk pushing more smallholder coconut growers out of cultivation, particularly in the traditional triangle of Kurunegala, Puttalam and Gampaha. Coconut Cultivation Board officials have warned for months that ageing plantations and limited replanting are already constraining national output.
The floor-price move complements the agriculture insurance expansion announced earlier this week, which added coconut to the list of plantation crops eligible for state-backed crop insurance through the Agriculture and Agrarian Insurance Board.
The Ministry has not yet released the proposed floor-price level or the date on which it will take effect. A formal Cabinet paper is expected to follow the stakeholder consultation.
Source: Newswire.
