ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka is looking to relax food import controls Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya said, after widespread flooding of key farming areas by Cyclone Ditwah which has swept away crops.
There is also transport disruption blocking food transport.
“This is a time when the cost of food increases,” Prime Minister Amarasuriya told an economic forum organized by Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.
“We are looking at relaxing certain import regulations to enable the food supply to continue uninterrupted and for us to be able to manage the prices as well.”
Sri Lanka has draconian import controls and sky-high import taxes on basic foods linked ‘self-sufficiency’ and rent-seeking grain collector oligopolies (generally referred to as mafia) dating from the Rajapaksa regime for most foods, but beyond in the case of maize.
Sri Lanka not only taxes rice at around 300 dollars a tonne but also has import licensing. The autarkist food nationalism has risen to such levels that cereals that some grains are smuggled to feed the unfortunate population.
Maize is also under import licensing and taxes which has made basic proteins like chicken expensive. There is protein malnutrition and stunting among children of low income households.
A rent-seeking oligopoly also began in tinned fish about a decade ago which survives on gouging customers by lobbying for import taxes. Going beyond the Rajapaksa taxes, the economy was closed for imported tinned fish last month.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Amarasuriya said, rice paddies were flooded just after many farmers sowed their fields for the main Maha season.
“So that has been a major impact there because they have just started planting,” she said.
“I think the concern we have is that for example in paddy, the seeds are used up. So we are going to need to import that.
“Also the rice that the farmers are keeping in their homes have also been affected by the floods.”
Efforts are being made to quickly compensate farmers, and provide fertilizer, so that they can re-start cultivation, she said.
Sri Lanka also has draconian regulations stopping farmers from removing sand from flooded rice fields.
Sri Lanka is also looking at relaxing some quarantine regulations to permit the import of vegetables, she said.
Sri Lanka has also lost part of the layer chicken flock to floods, as well as broilers, according to industry officials. (Colombo/Dec02/2025)
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