The cabinet has approved a conspiracy to destroy the foreign exchange earned by exporting spices.
It has been decided to allow the import of spices from abroad in the name of re-export. Even before this, when the United National Party was in power, the high acceptance of Sri Lankan tea in the world market was completely destroyed due to importing waste tea and then exporting ‘Ceylon Tea’ after mixing high-quality Sri Lankan tea with this waste tea.
From 2015 to 2019, the foreign exchange earnings were greatly reduced due to the importation of pepper and then exporting high-quality Sri Lanka’s pepper mixed with this imported substandard pepper.
Due to the rackets in tea exports, the country’s tea exports have fallen to fifth place in the world market. Sri Lanka (Ceylon Tea) had the first place in tea’s reputation in the world market. During Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s election campaign, the huge drop in pepper export income was made a prominent topic.