No doubt the Sri Lanka Egg and Poultry industry is in deep crisis that has added another mind boggling issue to the government already saddled with many burning problems completing it to import eggs from India as the last resort.

The Finance Ministry said the Special Commodity Levy has been reduced from Rs. 50 to Rs. 1. The levy has been reduced for a period of three months from 21 February.

People fear that this may be another sugar scam type deal of throwing dust in the eyes of the people under guise of bringing down prices and tackling shortage in the market.

Egg prices are skyrocketing which cannot be controlled with the shortages of in the essential commodities in the market.

A shipment of 2 million eggs imported from India by the Sri Lanka State Trading Corporation will arrive in the island with in the next few weeks a sthe stock eggs has been shipped on Thursday 23 from India.

The General Manager of the Sri Lanka Sate Trading Corporation Chimala Iddamalgoda said that the selling price of imported egg will be in the region of Rs 40 and the whole stock will be soald to local bakeries badly affected by the shortage.

Egg producers in the island had rejected the government’s request to reduce egg prices. The government’s decision to impose a ceiling resulted in many poultry producers not supplying eggs to the markets until the prices increased.

The island has been facing a shortage of poultry eggs which resulted in a price hike. Earlier in January egg prices had risen to over 70 Lankan rupees per egg.

Egg producers in the island had rejected the government’s request to reduce egg prices. The government’s decision to impose a ceiling resulted in many poultry producers not supplying eggs to the markets until the prices increased.

Ahead of the two million eggs cargo from India this weekend, the Government has slashed the Special Commodity Levy on imported eggs.

The Finance Ministry said the Special Commodity Levy has been reduced from Rs. 50 to Rs. 1. The levy has been reduced for a period of three months from 21 February.

This has raised eyebrows of many as there were allegations of the involvement of Trade Minister’s close relative behind the deal of indian egg imports and the tax reduction Rs 49 per egg will deprive of the tax revenue of Rs980 million in single shipment for the state coffers.

This was imlar to the sugar scam which deprived the government of tax revenue of a whopping Rs. 16.763 Billion by the reduction of the special commodity levy imposed on imported sugar from Rs. 50/- per kilogram to Rs. 0.25/- per kilogram some times back.

The Department of Animal Production and Health however refused to grant permission to import eggs from India citing concerns over prevalent Avian influenza or bird flu cases.

Sri Lanka’s Trade Minister Nalin Fernando said that eggs will be sold for a price between Rs. 40/- to Rs. 42/-.

He said that 20% of the domestic requirement will be imported, and the ministry is in possession of the necessary funds for the imports.

The Chairman of the All Ceylon Egg Producers Association said that importing eggs would put the local industry at risk.

World Food Programme (WFP), in its Country Brief for January 2023, notes that food insecurity remains at concerning levels in the face of Sri Lanka’s economic crisis.

However, as per the latest Household Food Security Survey for December 2022, 33% of households in Sri Lanka are food insecure, a decline from 37% in November, the document read further.

The organization says 68% of households are resorting to negative food-based coping strategies such as consuming less preferred food, limiting portion sizes and/or reducing the number of meals.

The WFP says, in tandem with the Sri Lankan government, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN and WFP, a joint Food Security Assessment (CFSAM) would be conducted in early March, targeting 15,000 households from 25 districts. This is a follow-up to the CFSAM conducted in May 2022.

The report further noted that markets remain functional and currently have a wide range of products, adequate physical availability of essential goods and a resilient supply chain, despite the markets reporting concerns around price volatility in December last year as per the WFP’s December Market Functional Index.

With regards to its emergency responses to Sri Lanka’s economic crisis, WFP mentioned its plans to assist 3.4 million people through general food distribution, school meals and nutrition support.

Since the start of emergency operations in June 2022, WFP has reached 489,040 people with cash assistance and 362,100 with in-kind food assistance. This is a result of WFP’s response scale-up aimed at reaching 1.4 million people through unconditional food assistance (cash or in-kind).

As of January 2023, WFP had distributed rice to 7,593 schools, reaching 1,050,714 children. WFP surpassed its plan to support 1 million children with school meals through the Government’s national school meals programme in 2022.

According to the World Food Program, 6.3 million people, or over 30 percent of Sri Lanka’s population, are “food insecure” and require humanitarian assistance.

Of these, around 5.3 million people are either reducing meals or skipping meals, and at least 65,600 people are severely food insecure.

According to a study by Save the Children in June 2022, 59% of families reported not being able to meet all their food needs fully.

In addition, two in three respondents noted that their households had to rely on less preferred or less expensive foods at least once a week before the survey.

The report stated: “Over half of all children had to eat less preferred food and children had to reduce their quantity of food intake.

Sri Lanka is set to receive its first group of post-pandemic Chinese tourists after becoming one of the first 20 countries to resume the organization of outbound group tourists from China since COVID-19.

Their flight will depart from the Shanghai Pudong International Airport on March 3.“We are expecting Chinese tourists to come back soon, but their particular interest has been to countries closer to China,” Anura Fernando, the consul general of Sri Lanka in Shanghai, said during an interview with China Daily about the country’s eagerness to receive more tourists from China.

As soon as the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced the decision to allow travel agencies to resume booking groups to travel to 20 countries and regions on Feb 6, the Sri Lanka consul general began to work closely with travel agencies and other partners to reopen direct flights between Shanghai and Colombo, its capital city.

Only a limited number of countries have been included in this list and this listing is a reflection of the close bonds between the two countries. The Embassy has consistently made representations to have Sri Lanka included in such a list.

The tourism industry of Sri Lanka which suffered a catastrophic decline following the Covid19 pandemic, now has the opportunity to recover rapidly. In 2019, 169 million Chinese nationals travelled outside the Chinese mainland. Today there is a tremendous pent up urge to travel among the Chinese and large numbers are expected to undertake vacation travel.

The Sri Lanka Embassy in Beijing is continuing its multi faceted efforts to promote Sri Lanka tourism despite the limited resources available, including during Ambassador Dr Palitha Kohona’s visits to different provinces and cities.

The electronic (TV) and the print media (including the national dailies) have been engaged on every occasion as well as the social media.

With its tropical climate, as well as rich and diverse cultural heritage, Sri Lanka has been a popular destination for holidaymakers from around the world. In 2018, the country received a record number of 280,000 tourists from China.

“Since most Chinese haven’t traveled out of the country for three years, they are looking at closer destinations,” he says, adding “but I think Sri Lanka should be attractive to most Chinese tourists”.

He notes that the rich heritage of Buddhist culture, tea plantations, gem stones, as well as its natural beauty and water activities, are all appealing for Chinese tourists. Now that the pandemic is over, and Sri Lanka has emerged from the economic crisis, Fernando hopes that “this year tourists’ numbers will increase to about 1 million”.

China is the biggest trading partner of Sri Lanka and the largest source of foreign investments. With the signing of a free trade agreement expected to be made this year, Fernando believes the trade volume will increase between the two countries.

One of the first countries involved in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Sri Lanka has witnessed major projects constructed by China, such as the Port City in Colombo that kicked off in 2014