Sugath Kulatunga

Business Times of December 03, 2023, published a relevant article by Agri experts pointing out that the Ad hoc ban on oil palm deters foreign exchange savings. One was under the impression that Minister Amaraweera had instructed the CEA to conduct further formal research on palm oil cultivation. The knee-jerk ban on Oil Palm was another decision taken without proper investigation, perhaps based on a biased CEA report on the subject. Firstly, the very composition of the report was defective. The lead members of the team were from CRI and RRI which had a direct stake in the spread of Oil Palm, for the market in coconut oil and land for both coconut and rubber. Scientists who had done extensive work on Oil Palm had no place in this Committee.

The proposal at the time of the decision to introduce Oil Palm was to identify 20,000 ha of suitable land in the major plantations for the purpose. This extent was adequate to produce the island‚s requirement at that time of 80,000 MT. It was also noted that while coconut gave a return of Rs 175, 000 per ha, oil palm generated Rs 514,000 per annum. A major criticism of the oil palm is that it has a higher evapotranspiration rate than that of rubber which is not scientifically confirmed in the local scene. This claim deliberately ignores the fact that the density of trees per hectare is very different which is 123 in oil palm and 520 in rubber. This reduces the difference in evapotranspiration to less than 10 percent.

We should be pleased that the Minister has not yielded to the subterfuges of the western vegetable lobby. I recollect that even as far back as 1960 there was a hostile campaign against coconut oil claiming that its use is the cause of high cholesterol. Even our family doctor advised us to avoid coconut oil and use sunflower oil which was actively promoted at the time. Although the reaction of our authorities was lukewarm Malaysia employed eminent Western scientists to prove that the cholesterol claim was groundless and in fact, coconut oil was a superior healthy oil. The next target of the western vegetable oil mafia was palm oil. They started by protesting that thousands of hectares of natural forests were causing environmental damage. They did not worry about the massive damage done to the Amazon. The next objection was that the natural habitat of the Orangutan was destroyed. The current objection is to human rights that labor rights are denied. Despite all these machinations, the oil palm industry is today meeting around 50% of the global needs of vegetable oil.

It is incomprehensible (like on many other faux pas of the previous Presidency why this product which is a winner has been banned based on unscientific and biased information. There must be a fresh look at this issue.

Sugath Kulatunga