Plantations Minister tells stakeholders to unite or perish

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam
Sri Lanka’s plantations ministry recently called for industry stakeholders to be more collaborative in its efforts to ensure the retention of a competitive position in the global market, and warned failing to do so would result in the county further losing its position.

Stressing the need for ‘change’ in the way of work, Plantation Industries Minister Navin Dissanayake recently asserted the biggest challenge faced in taking the tea, rubber, and coconut sectors forward is in getting all stakeholders of the supply chain onto the same page.

“The biggest hurdle faced is to get all stakeholders together and agree on certain matters. The planters want something, and the processors would want something else. Seldom there is an agreement on any matters, and these hold the industry back,” pointed out Dissanayake.

The minister made his comments while addressing the Coconut, Rubber and Tea (CRT) Trade Fair 2017 inauguration held last Friday (11) in Colombo. 

The event, inaugurated by President Maithripala Sirisena, brought together all stakeholders of the plantation industries and relevant government officials.

The minister asserted the need of the hour was to change the current mindset and work towards a greater goal, which is to increase the revenue contribution of each sector to the national economy.
“If we don’t change our way of thinking and doing work, we will fall back. That is already happening. We need to ensure our position in the international market and for that we must be on par with global developments,” he stressed.

Dissanayake added that along with embracing change that would boost competitiveness, the tea, rubber, and coconut sectors must divert much of its attention towards value addition.

“We need to understand what the international market wants and cater accordingly. If it is value addition then we must look into that. Else we will lose out to our competitors. The market is changing and we must keep up if we intend on catering to it,” he said.

It was also pointed out that the CRT Trade Fair was held to allow the local players to have access to industry information which relates to markets, technological aspects, production processes and products.

The three day event that came to a close yesterday was designed to facilitate free flow of information among participants with unrestricted interactions aided by innovative ICT practices.

According to the Ministry of Plantations Industries, also the organizers, the CRT is a world class event with facilities for global value chain players in coconut, rubber and tea industries to meet, network, interact, share and learn latest knowledge pertaining to all aspects of their respective industry operations.

The event featured machinery and equipment suppliers, technology and knowledge providers, suppliers of materials including chemicals, traders, distributors and marketers, CRT producers and value added products manufacturers, knowledge providers and suppliers of materials including chemicals.