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| Sunday, 21 April 2002 |
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C'nuts and cooking oil to be imported The Ministry of Plantation Industries will soon take steps to import coconuts and cooking oil without a surcharge, the ministry sources said. The ministry is trying to meet the demand of consumers without adding any extra burden on them while having to cope with a loss of over two billion nuts, which is the result of last year's drought that depleted over 600,000 trees from local industry. The ministry plans to issue permits to import cooking oil without a surcharge and describes as a short term measure that comes under the government's 100 -day programme that aims at achieving speedy development in the country. It will also issue import permits for desiccated coconuts as a medium term measure under the same programme. Meanwhile, the coconut farmers are urging the Plantation Industries Ministry to re-start nut plantations in drought-ravaged plantations, mainly down South, with promotional programmes to revive the nut industry. Sources of the Coconut Cultivation Board (CCB) said that it had received 32987 letters from nut farmers requesting them to launch re-planting programmes. According to Board officials, the CCB has designed a number of programmes to benefit coconut farmers. "The main aim is to impart modern know-how and techniques on nut farming and pest control." "At present we have taken steps to provide the c'nut farmers with quality plants free of charge. Moves are under way to distribute two million coconut plants among them under the 100-days programme." |
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