{"id":122466,"date":"2022-01-29T17:06:33","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T00:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=122466"},"modified":"2022-01-29T17:06:33","modified_gmt":"2022-01-30T00:06:33","slug":"sri-lanka-seizes-16-tonnes-of-illicit-beetroot-shipment-amid-food-shortages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2022\/01\/29\/sri-lanka-seizes-16-tonnes-of-illicit-beetroot-shipment-amid-food-shortages\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka seizes 16 tonnes of illicit beetroot shipment amid food shortages"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Khaleej Times<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Beetroots are contraband, according to a Customs official.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/image.khaleejtimes.com\/?uuid=d84aae35-ef71-5af7-a88b-df40e2b179d9&amp;function=cropresize&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;q=75&amp;crop_w=0.99999&amp;crop_h=0.88686&amp;x=0&amp;y=0.05657&amp;width=1200&amp;height=675\" alt=\"Reuters file photo\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka is battling food shortages, but officials have seized a 16-tonne shipment of beetroots for violating a strict import ban aimed at propping up the island&#8217;s ailing economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A shipping container full of the illicit vegetable arrived with a false manifest claiming they were potatoes, which are not subject to the restrictions, customs spokesman Sudaththa Silva told AFP on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Beetroots are contraband,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We seized the cargo which came from Pakistan yesterday and will take legal action against the importer.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka banned a wide range of imports in 2020 to shore up haemorrhaging foreign currency reserves, after the pandemic battered the nation&#8217;s tourism-dependent economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The restrictions have led to power blackouts from utility companies unable to source enough oil, while supermarkets have since late last year rationed rice and other foods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year&#8217;s decision to ban imported agricultural chemicals, since reversed, compounded food shortages by causing crop failures and prompting some farmers to leave their fields fallow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Official figures show that food prices rose a record 21.5 percent last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Silva said that local vendors have complained that imported vegetables were undercutting local farmers already struggling in the wake of last year&#8217;s poor yields.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Khaleej Times Beetroots are contraband, according to a Customs official. Sri Lanka is battling food shortages, but officials have seized a 16-tonne shipment of beetroots for violating a strict import ban aimed at propping up the island&#8217;s ailing economy. A shipping container full of the illicit vegetable arrived with a false manifest claiming they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}