30 March 2021 12:00 am Views - 329
By Jude Samantha
Small and Medium Scale Coconut Oil Manufacturers’ Union has accused the Coconut Development Board of allowing the racketeers to import coconut oil unfit for human consumption. President of the Union Surendra Perera said the media had given wide publicity to the import of coconut oil unfit for human consumption due to contents causing cancer and several terminal ailments.
He said only few out of more than 1,000 oil mills in the country had been registered with the Coconut Development Board and that those who were registered were not receiving any incentives from the CDB.
“The CDB would not provide any facilities to purchase machinery and equipment or any incentives to develop the industry. They are of the opinion that the oil mills have failed to meet the demand for coconut oil. Then the CDB has allowed several private sector companies to import cooking oil. This has resulted in the import of oil unfit for human consumption which is mixed with a very small percentage of coconut oil and issued to the market. The production cost of genuine coconut oil is Rs.800 per kilo. However a kilo of coconut oil is available for Rs. 300. The consumer must realise that they were not buying real coconut oil,” he said.
He further said this crisis is due to the shortage of Copra to manufacture pure coconut oil and that the Coconut Development Board should permit the coconut oil manufacturers to import Copra for which the Coconut Oil Manufacturers had already made a request.