ECONOMYNEXT – Ceylon Grain Elevators, Sri Lanka’s largest feed-milling poultry group said it coordinated a bulk maize vessel to reduce the cost of imported inputs, which are taxed at high levels by the government.
“Successfully coordinated a bulk maize vessel, optimizing supply chain efficiency while reducing procurement delays and cost overruns,” Ceylon Grain Elevators said in its 2024 annual report.
Sri Lanka taxes maize at 25 rupee a kilogram (83 US dollars) compared to maize price of 200 to 275 dollars a tonne depending on the country of export.
By bringing maize for all the poultry producers in a chartered bulk carrier instead of a few containers at a time, shipping costs could be kept down, Ajith Gunassekera, President of the All Island Poultry Association said.
In producing countries maize is as low as 70 rupees a kilogram but in Sri Lanka maize is around 140 rupees a kilogram, (which works out to around 460-470 US dollars a tonne), Ajith Gunassekera, President of the All Island Poultry Association said.
Indian maize could be imported for around 300 dollars a tonne and Pakistan around 275 dollars when import permits are given in time. There have been complains that import permits are given at the last minute and sellers then jack up prices.
“Rice farmers get subsidies for fertilizer, which is their biggest input, fishermen get subsidies for diesel but chicken farmers are taxed on their input which is feed,” Gunasekera lamented.
Chicken and eggs are also subject to value added tax, he pointed out, while other famers get subsidies.
Sri Lanka started to tax maize on a grand ‘self-sufficiency’ scheme which gave large profits to a few collectors (so-called maize mafia) and kept maize farming inefficient and low yielding.
Self-sufficiency was heavily promoted in the 1930s in Hitler’s National-Socialist (Nazi) Germany in a 1936-1940 four-year plan under top Nazi leader Hermann Göring.
Nazi promoted self-sufficiency ahead of World War II, in a bid to avoid the effects of Allied shipping blockades of World War I. Allied shipping blockades are estimated to have cost 600,000 Germany lives through malnutrition and disease.
Due to money printed for re-armament through so-called mefo-bills, Nazi Germany also suffered forex shortages, giving additional backing for domestic production scams.
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Nazi economic, social and racial policy – WJEC
Self-sufficiency as well as ‘import substitution’ caught on in the 1960 especially the 1970s when the central banks around the world printed money as US claims of a Phillips Curve and ‘inflation growth-trade off’ spread like a pandemic around central bankers, destroying monetary stability, and shattering the Bretton Woods system in its wake.
The more authoritarian nationalist countries went for full Nazi style self-sufficiency while others oppressed the people with high-priced, low-quality import substitution production by eliminating foreign competition and allowing domestic producers to exploit the poor through protectionist taxes.
When the economy was closed in the 1970s, as macro-economists printed money, the Thriposha nutritional supplement was devised by foreign aid agencies.
At the moment maize for Threeposha to counter malnutrition is imported tax free, while taxes are kept high on rice maize and other grains helping increase protein malnutrition for all.
During the Rajapaksa regime ‘self-sufficiency’ or autarky was also extended to milk and dairy products, a vital food for children, leading to extaodinary taxes and high domestic prices for dairy products. For high yielding cows however maize is a key feedstock. (Colombo/May16/2025)
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