6 April 2021 11:47 am
All Ceylon Bakery Owners' Association (ACBOA) today said the immediate decision taken by the President to ban the importation of palm oil from yesterday, will lead to the permanent closure of the bakery industry.
ACBOA President N.K. Jayawardene told the Daily Mirror that the immediate decision had a sudden impact on the bakery industry.
"Almost all bakery products need four main ingredients such as flour, sugar, eggs and margarine. Palm oil is used to make margarine and now we unable to find margarine in the market," he said.
"Before making the instant decision, the President should have proposed an alternative or substitute in place of oil for the people to use. From today onwards, we will not be able to continue with our bakery industry," he said.
"This is not a practical move and we do not know who had advised the President to take such decision. This will not bring any success whatsoever. All bakeries, biscuit manufacturers and confectioneries in the country will have to be closed down and more than 100,000 people will face the danger of losing their jobs," Jayawardene said.
He said around 30 to 40 metric tons of palm oil is being used in the bakery industry which in turn gives a major revenue to the Government. However, an alternative decision should have been made before arriving at this tough decision.
"60% of palm oil is manufactured globally among other consumer oil varieties. Only 5% of coconut oil stock is available in the market and that is not sufficient to run the bakery industry even momentarily," Jayawardene added. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)