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A debate worth having The debate around palm oil in Sri Lanka is worth having. Public concern around health, food quality, environmental sustainability, and long-term agricultural direction should not be dismissed. In many ways, awareness is the first step toward better public thinking. Mixed opinions are useful too. They force difficult subjects into the open and prevent silence from becoming policy. But awareness is only the starting point. It cannot be the conclusion. Once

Palm oil in Sri Lanka is often discussed as a policy failure, an environmental misstep, or a crop that never truly belonged here. The narrative is usually emotional and polarized—framed as a moral debate rather than an economic or operational one. In most discussions, palm oil is treated as an exception: an error that was eventually corrected. But when viewed through the lens of productivity, systems, and long-term competitiveness, palm oil tells a very different story. Not o

Productivity didn’t decline overnight. It stalled in transition. For decades, Sri Lanka stood tall among plantation economies. Tea, rubber, coconut—and later oil palm—were once benchmarks of efficiency, quality, and global relevance.Yet today, Sri Lanka’s plantation productivity tells a different story: flat yields, rising costs, shrinking margins , and increasing dependence on protection rather than competitiveness. Meanwhile, peers didn’t stand still. Countries like Malays

For decades, Sri Lanka’s plantation sector survived by relying on tradition, resilience, and sheer hard work. Tea, rubber, coconut, cinnamon, and oil palm continued to generate foreign exchange and rural employment even as productivity stagnated and global competitors moved ahead. Today, that survival model is under serious strain. The sector is facing a convergence of pressures: rising wages, labour shortages, climate volatility, ageing plantations, and a cost structure that

In a serene, mist-covered landscape, digital overlays highlight the precision of modern agricultural technology on lush, rolling hills. What It Was, What It Is, and What We Missed For more than 150 years, plantations have shaped Sri Lanka’s economy, exports, and rural life. Coffee, tea, rubber, coconut, cinnamon, and later oil palm have all played defining roles in the nation’s growth. From railway lines built to transport coffee, to today’s tea auctions that still influence