Trade Minister explains how yahapalana govt. threatened country’s food security

By Saman Indrajith

The yahapalana government had dealt a body blow to the national economy by importing large quantities of food and thereby discouraging local producers, Trade Minister Dr Bandula Gunawardena told Parliament yesterday. It threatened Sri Lanka’s food security greatly, he said.

Answering a question raised by SLPP MP Mohamed Muzammil, the minister said that the yahapalana government had not cared about the local farmers.

“Whenever they wanted to control prices in the local market, they imported food items. Even we could do so but we have to think about the food security and the farmers.

“Those in the Opposition say they could bring down the rice prices within one week. That could be done by importing rice from India. We could bring down the rice price to Rs. 85 a kilo within one week. But what would happen to the local farmers? We have decided to continue with import bans so that local producers will be able to recover.

“During the Yahapalana period from 2015 to 2019, 30.7 million kilos of green gram were imported at a total cost of 11,321 million rupees, from countries such as India, Australia, Thailand and China.

During the time of Mahinda Rajapaksa government from 2011 to 2014 total green gram imports cost Only Rs. 4,315 million. The cost increased by more than threefold and the imports more than doubled.”