Agriculture Minister P Harrison said that he is planning to introduce a quota system for the importation of big onion in order to protect local farmers.
According to the statistics of the Agriculture Ministry, the total extent of big onion cultivated lands which was prevailed as 7000 hectares of land in the past has been reduced to 1000 hectares. The importation of big onion during the harvesting season has been resulted for this, said the Minister.
“Considering this situation, we have decided to limit big onion imports especially during the months of March, April and May and also to introduce a quota system.” he added.
The Minister pledged to implement a proper mechanism to calculate the quantity of big onion annually import to the country and also to ban the release of imported big onion stocks of importers during the period from March to May.