Hulangamuwa calls for mechanisation, wage reforms to revive plantations

SENIOR Economic Adviser to the President Duminda Hulangamuwa last week warned that Sri Lanka’s plantation industry faces an urgent need for structural reforms if it is to remain sustainable in the face of declining output and a shrinking labour force.

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Delivering the keynote address at the 171st Annual General Meeting of the Planters’ Association of Ceylon last Friday, Chief Guest Hulangamuwa stressed that the plantation sector remains a “backbone of the economy,” supporting over 1.5 million Sri Lankans and generating around $ 1 billion annually from tea, rubber and coconut exports.

Despite tea production growing from 179 million kilograms in 1992 to 262 million kilograms today, he opined the pace of increase has been modest, while rubber output has dropped by a third and coconut has shown only marginal gains. Land under tea and rubber cultivation has also contracted, and yields have remained largely stagnant.

SENIOR Economic Adviser to the President Duminda Hulangamuwa last week revealed that sweeping reforms in State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and public-private partnerships (PPPs) are in the pipeline as part of the Government's broader economic restructuring.

"The question is not whether planters are committed, they clearly are; but whether we are satisfied with where we are? We need to consider carefully what the way forward is, given these overall declines," he said.