Disaster hits Puttalam’s prawn industry

By Yohan Perera

Export of prawns, which has been a lucrative business that brings in much needed foreign exchange to Sri Lanka, has come to a standstill due to the disaster situation that had hit the nation, two industrialists in the Puttalam District said yesterday.

Sarath Rodirigo who is an owner of one prawn farm in Puttalam told Daily Mirror that nearly 90 percent of the farms have got washed away by flood waters.

“We have suffered the worst losses since 2016, as an unexpected amount of water came took our farms to the sea,” he said.

He further said that prawn farm owners are yet to calculate the losses incurred by them and the total loss suffered by prawn famers in the districts. “We are on a mission to collect data, and we will be able to come up with proper data in a few days time.” 

Sampath Fernando another prawn farmer said the export of prawns have come to a standstill as the farmers are unable to supply stocks to exporters. He said Puttalam District accounts to 80 percent of the total prawn exports of the country.

Meanwhile, the Fisheries Ministry confirmed that around 600 prawn farms in the Puttalam District have been destroyed by cyclone Ditwah.