The Promotion of Export Agriculture (Amendment) Bill was considered and approved at a recent meeting of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Environment, Agriculture and Resource Sustainability, which is meant to modernize Sri Lanka’s export agriculture sector, according to a statement released by the Parliament.
Accordingly, as part of the restructuring of the institutional structure of the Department of Export Agriculture, new positions were created and existing positions were upgraded, including changing the designation of Director to Director General. However, the relevant provisions of the Export Agriculture Promotion Act, No. 46 of 1992, had not been amended accordingly.
Furthermore, other related designations that required amendment had also not been revised. The necessary amendments have therefore been introduced through this Bill. It was also noted that the definitions of export agricultural crops referred to in the Act as “notified agricultural crops” have become practically incompatible with current production and market conditions. Accordingly, the need has arisen to revise and update the relevant definition so that it is appropriate for the present and future export agriculture sector.
Accordingly, the Bill provides that, in place of the definition of the term “Export Agricultural Crop” in Section 19 of the Act, the term shall mean means any crop identified as a crop that have an export potential in addition to the local consumption other than paddy, vegetables, fruits, root crops and additional food crops belonging to the category of food crops and declared by the Minister in charge of the subject as “a notified agricultural crop” under section 2 of this Act. It further provides that any crop identified as a plantation crop shall not be included in this definition.
The Committee also inquired into matters relating to the export of crops from Sri Lanka, including pepper. It was revealed that Sri Lanka exported 12,910 metric tonnes of pepper in 2025, with India being the country’s largest buyer.
Source: The Morning