ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s privately run Laugfs Gas has reduced the price of domestic gas cylinders, a company statement said.
The new price of a 12.5kg gas cylinder has been reduced by 1,050 rupees effective Wednesday August 17, and will now retail at 5,800 rupees. A 5kg cylinder will be 2,320 rupees, and a 2kg cylinder will be 928 rupees.
The company had received a shipment of 3,120 MT of LP gas on Tuesday, and the stocks would be released as soon as filling station operations commence, they said via Facebook post.
The prices are still much higher than in the state run Litro gas, where a 12.5kg gas cyclinder retails at 4,910 rupees, 5kg at 1,971 rupees, and 2.3kg at 914 rupees.
Litro has commenced using a cost reflective pricing formula that resulted in a slight drop in prices this month.
The company which has been running at a loss for some time, started turning in a small profit from July, Chairman Muditha Pieris said.
Meanwhile, Laugfs Gas, which was at one point the sole gas supplier in the country due to Litro’s inability to import the goods, has made a loss of 1.75 billion rupees in the June quarter due to non-availability of forex.
The company controls 20 percent of Sri Lanka’s LP gas market. (Colombo/Aug18/2022)
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ECONOMYNEXT – Newy imposed maximum retail prices on eggs sold in crisis-hit Sri Lanka may demotivate producers resulting in further shortages in poultry products in the market, the All Island Poultry Association said.
The association said on Saturday August 19 that farmers may stop raising new chicks for egg production due to higher costs.
On August 19, the Consumer Affairs Authority introduced new maximum retail prices for eggs effective immediately.
The maximum retail price for a white egg is now 43 rupees while for a brown/red egg it’s 45.00 rupees.
The demand for poultry products increased in the last two weeks with the country’s gas and fuel shortages being brought under control by the state owned suppliers and business picked up for restaurants and hotels.
With the increased demand and lack of supply, some customers have directly contacted farmers offering higher prices to secure supplies, resulting in further price hikes in the market.
However, with Sri Lanka’s forex shortage affecting animal feed importation, the production of eggs and meat has also dropped due to lack of nutrition packs given to animals in farms, Association President Ajith Gunasekera said speaking to EconomyNext on Saturday.
“We as an association are not involved in price controls of products. However, this is a situation where farmers are also at a disadvantage due to the higher production costs incurred by them,” he said.
Around 50 percent of the small and medium farm owners have left the industry due to high production costs and low income, he added.
Gunasekara said due to insufficient nutrition combined with the inability to import animal feed, the production of eggs per week has gone down while the weight of a chicken that is produced for meat has also gone down.
“In my opinion, imposing a maximum retail price is not a positive solution at the moment,” he said.
The price ceiling came five days after Sri Lanka’s bakers and confectionery makers demanded government intervention to impose price controls on their suppliers such as egg farmers along with other raw materials needed for bakery products claiming that the price of bread and a bun could be brought down by at least 25 to 50 rupees if the government intervened.
However, egg prices continued to rise throughout the month due to lack of supply and high demand in the market.
“We thought even though production decreased, the situation can be controlled with substitutes coming into the market. Fish products were the best substitute, but due to production being hit by the fuel issue, fish products are too expensive and compared to that, poultry products still look cheaper,” said Gunasekara.
He said the association intervened and motivated farmers with the hope of getting the necessary poultry food to start production and asked parent farms to start raising chicks needed for egg and meat production two weeks ago.
Under normal circumstances, he said, it takes 21 days to hatch a chick, 35 days to produce chicken to the market and around five months to start egg production.
Gunasekara said, under the current circumstances, the production cost per egg is 49 rupees which is above the published retail prices.
“But with the price revisions we are informed that the farmers who placed orders for chicks are now rejecting it, due to higher cost,” he said.
“Now the parent farms are complaining that the chicks are here but no one wants to buy them and they’re forced to kill the chicks. With the demand expected to increase in the coming months with tourism and festival season coming in, there will bea need for chicks again. It will take 21 days to hatch a chick, and around five months till it matures enough to lay eggs. So there will be another shortage going forward,” he said.
Gunasekara said the sudden decision by the authorities may have disrupted the system, which in turn may result in a severe shortage.
By securing just the required amount of animal feed and with the current stock of hens, the production of eggs can be improved by 10-15 percent, he said the authorities have been asked for a meeting to discuss and rethink the price controls.
The government has also focused on locally producing the raw materials needed for poultry food, he said.
A natural price control should come into play after increasing animal feed supply to improve production without resorting to sudden decisions to control prices, said Gunasekara.
“We as an association are asking to get the necessary poultry food for the farmers and come up with a system to safeguard the producers and the consumers and secure a quality product for the consumers,” he added. (Colombo/Aug20/2022)
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka customs arrested three Indian nationals who were attempting to smuggle in gold jewellery worth 18 million rupees
The Narcotics Control Unit of Sri Lanka Customs nabbed the passengers at the airport arrival terminal on Friday August 19.
The suspects, aged between 28 and 38, were attempting to smuggle the jewellery through the green channel without declaration to the customs.
The total weight of the jewellery was 1,200 grams.
Investigations are currently underway, Customs officials said. (Colombo/ Aug 20/2022)
ECONOMYNEXT – Staff at Sri Lanka’s Ayurveda Teaching Hospital in Borella held a demonstration to bring attention to several issues including medicine shortages faced by Ayurvedic practitioners around the island and to protest systemic corruption.
The protest, held on Friday August 19 was on behalf of several groups including the Sri Lanka Government Ayurveda Medical Officers’ Association, the All Ceylon Nurses’ Union and All Ceylon Ayurveda Health Service Union.
“There are no medicines in the Ayurveda hospitals. If we need 100, we only have 20. Doctors have to give close substitutes or sometimes turn patients away empty handed,” said protest organiser P D N S J Bandara.
Bandara said that despite having the capability to produce medicines locally, the government’s lack of planning meant that 90 percent of raw materials for Ayurvedic medicines had to be imported.
“We have around 5 Osu Uyan (medicinal herb gardens) in Sri Lanka, but the government has always come between development of those areas, preventing experimentation. All the medicines we need can be produced in the country, but because there are no proper policies, the gardens have been neglected and become forests,” he said.
The hospital had to campaign hard for funds to provide meals for patients who were admitted there, Bandara said.
“The people coming here are not rich people; but when they get admitted we can’t even feed them. There was a time when patients only had rice and gravy.”
Bandara alleged that funding was not getting through to hospitals.
“If we are allocated 600 million, we end up seeing only 100 million. This is the economic policy of this country.”
While Sri Lanka has a bloated public sector, Bandara said that Ayurvedic hospitals were critically understaffed to the point that it was almost impossible to function.
“This is because for 10 years no new recruitments have been made properly at the Ayurvedic hospitals. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is saying there are too many state workers. Do they think we are getting paid in dollars? We are only getting a very poor salary, compared to the rest of the Asian region.”
Similar protests were being carried out in front of Ayurveda hospitals in Kurunegala, Pallekele, Ratnapura, Kegalla, Meegoda and the Chamal Rajapaksha Ayurveda Hospital in Hambantota, Bandara said. (Colombo/Aug19/2022)
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