Cabinet approves regulatory powers for domestic and imported coconut oil and other edible oil products

The cabinet paper submitted by the Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, has been approved to safeguard the coconut oil industry in Sri Lanka as well as to confirm the quality of coconut oil produced in the country and to grant powers to the Coconut Development Authority to regulate the quality of imported edible oil due to the problematic situation.

In particular, coconut oil is mixed with the edible oil imported into Sri Lanka and refined and sent to the market. However, no system has been implemented to confirm the quality of this imported coconut oil and other edible oils as well as the coconut oil produced in our country.

For this reason, with the observations of several ministries including the Ministry of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Food Safety, Ministry of Industry, Consumer Protection Authority, Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries presented the cabinet paper.

Currently, the annual consumption of coconut oil in this country is 240,000 metric tons. Out of this, 40,000 metric tons are produced locally and the rest is mixed with substitute oil and supplied to the market as coconut oil.

Hence, there is a problem for consumers to identify the real coconut oil. Accordingly, as per the cabinet paper submitted by the Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, all medium-scale coconut oil factories in Sri Lanka producing up to 0.5 metric tons of coconut oil per day should be registered with the Coconut Development Authority.

And those factories should confirm Good Manufacturing Practices. After obtaining the certificate, the Coconut Development Authority will provide a certificate logo for all relevant products supplied to the market.

Coconut Development Authority is entrusted with the powers to regulate edible oil importers, refiners, packers, stockers, distributors and traders who do not follow the provisions of the Gazette notification not to mix other types of oil with coconut oil.

The quality of imported palm oil should be verified by recognized laboratories. Also, all the retail stores that sell coconut oil and other edible oils obtained from plants belonging to the palm type must also obtain registration from the Coconut Development Authority.

The power to regulate the quantity and quality of the imported coconut oil is also assigned to the Coconut Development Authority.

Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, Mr.Mahinda Amaraweera stated that this step was taken considering the problematic situation regarding the quality of coconut oil and other edible oils currently sold in the market as well as the health and safety of the public.