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| Sunday, 3 April 2005 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Protecting local food and packaging industry by L. S. A. Wedaarachchi It is vital to take steps to scrutinise and control the import of food and packaging items to Sri Lanka to protect the local food and packaging industry. Some local industries had to close down due to the free flow of food and packaging items in the recent past. It was revealed that some imported food items had expired and were not suitable for human consumption. According to Rohan Fernando, Patron, Small and Medium Scale Industries Foundation, there is no necessity at present to import some food items and packaging items to Sri Lanka, since the industry has reached the level of excess capacity. He thanked the government for the wise decisions taken in regard to the imposition of taxes on some food items which are being produced satisfactorily by small and medium scale industrialists locally. The quality of local food products is very high. They are fresh and nutritious. The prices are also reasonable and competitive. Similar imported food items cannot compete with the local food products in terms of price and freshness. Some similar imported food items were removed from local supermarket chains, he said. Some sweets and confectionery which were banned in Sri Lanka two years ago have reappeared in recent times in the local market. The main reason for banning these items was the presence of cancerous colouring. It has been revealed that some food items produced in Indonesia reach the Singapore market after the expiry period from where they find their way to Sri Lanka, with changed dates of expiry. Unscrupulous importers resort to these tactics. Some finished packaging items which have been imported from the same destinations to Sri Lanka are also not suitable for food packaging as the packaging materials are made using low quality raw materials. A spokesman for a local packaging company said that the finished packaging items made in Sri Lanka are hundred per cent safe and are suitable for food packaging. Sri Lankan packaging manufacturers are not allowed to use low quality raw materials and it is thoroughly checked by the Customs here, he said. He said that it is evident that some Indian and Indonesian packaging plants use recycled raw materials for their packaging productions and some of those packaging products are not suitable for food packaging. To check this situation and to improve the local packaging industry, it is suggested to impose additional tax for finished packaging items as done for food imports, he said. |
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