Sri Lanka many face a huge shortage of sugar due to delays in clearing the consignment from the Customs due to cocaine arriving in sugar containers from Brazil.
Nihan Seneviratne from Sri Lanka Sugar Importers Association said due to the delay it takes around seven to 10 days to clear a lorry load from Customs at their yard in Meethotamulla.
“Due to this, we have to spend an additional Rs. 9 per kilo and if this trend continues, we will have to stop the import resulting in a shortage of sugar,” he said.
Seneviratne said India and Thailand are facing a sugar crisis and they have no option other than to import from Brazil.
“We must also emphasise that the cocaine that was detected was never bound for Sri Lanka as drug addicts don’t use cocaine which is too expensive.”