It has been decided to suspend the Gazette Notification published by the Government to allow the Import of several types of Spices including Pepper for Re-export.

Recently, the government has issued a gazette notification allowing the import of several types of spices grown in Sri Lanka such as pepper, nutmeg, mace, turmeric, ginger, and cardamom for re-export.

Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries has expressed his opposition to the relevant gazette notification at the Cabinet meeting chaired by the Hon. President Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe yesterday (12).

The Minister has pointed out that by allowing the import of these spices for re-export, the local spice farmer is discouraged, and therefore the cultivation of local spice products collapses. The Minister has also pointed out that this will have a strong impact on the quality of spices in Sri Lanka, which currently ranks first among the best spices’ brands in the world.

Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries said that taking these facts into consideration, the Cabinet of Ministers led by the Hon. President decided to suspend the relevant gazette notification and to suspend the import of spices to Sri Lanka for re-export.

Also, the Minister has mentioned that the attention of the Cabinet of Ministers was focused on conducting a long study to further maintain the quality of local spices and the role to be played by the government to further raise local spices as plantation crops.