Sri Lanka to cultivate more sugarcane

Sri Lanka has planned to increase sugarcane cultivation and set up fifteen new manufacturing plants in the country under a two stage project.

According to a statement, under the first stage project, the country expects to manufacture 50% of its sugar requirement locally by 2020. The statement by the Ministry of Finance quotes Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake saying that the cabinet has already approved the new sugar manufacture development project.

There are four sugar factories engaged in the industry and they annually manufacture 56,000 metric tonnes of sugar, while compared to the country’s annual sugar consumption – 700,000 metric tonnes but the local production is only 8%.

Accordingly, the second project under the long term basis will be implemented with the participation of the private sector to make the country self-sufficient in sugar by 2025. It has been calculated that a total number of 102,000 hectares should be cultivated sugarcane anew in order to make the country self-sufficient in sugar.

The Finance Ministry says that with the completion of the new project, the country will be able to save Rs.35 billion in  foreign exchange.

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