Losing millions in silence: Why Sri Lanka must lift Palm Oil ban now

and 2025 when the ban on oil palm cultivation first commenced in April 2021. It also noted that Sri Lanka continues to spend exorbitant sums on foreign exchange for edible oil imports that could have been substantially offset by local production. Once positioned as a key pillar in the nation’s crop diversification strategy, the abrupt policy reversal in 2021 has stalled progress toward edible oil self-sufficiency and dealt a setback to Sri Lanka’s broader economic recovery. Palm oil cultivation was first introduced to Sri Lanka in 1968, but only began to gain traction in the early 2000s when Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) sought alternatives to loss-making rubber. Recognising the crop’s immense potential, the Government at the time promised to extend tax concessions for the establishment of new oil palm cultivation in 2009 and even formally endorsed expansion up to 20,000 hectares by 2016. Sri Lanka’s annual edible fat and oil requirement stands at approximately 264,000 ...