Sri Lanka bans maize imports from India

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has temporarily halted maize imports from India after bird flu was reported in Maharashtra, leaving the island nation with just two weeks of stocks to feed local chicken, officials said on Tuesday.

India currently supplies around 90 per cent of Sri Lanka's total annual 200,000 metric tonne maize requirements, after the island cut off supplies from China, Thailand and Vietnam following an outbreak of avian flu.

India has already been included in Sri Lanka's long list countries from where poultry meat and all its by-products were banned.

"There is a possibility of maize imports from India getting contaminated with the avian influenza virus during processing," President of the All Island Poultry Farmers Association D D Wanasinghe said.

Wanasinghe said maize imports have been suspended from India for now, with a decision to be taken on future stocks, in about ten days' time.

He said the poultry industry now has two weeks of maize left, though the government will decide within the next days on how to source future stocks.

Sri Lanka is now left with importing maize from Argentina to feed its chickens. Besides hefty costs, Wanasinghe said the local Agriculture Department has some restrictions on imports from Argentina.

Animal Production Director General S K R Amarasekara told a meeting of health officials, Poultry Association members, poultry processors and feed importers that the Sri Lankan government also plans to ask advice from the World Health Organisation on sterilising feed.

The country banned imports of all poultry products last October over fears of a global bird flu pandemic.

Last month the government partially lifted the ban to allow imports of one-day old chicks to maintain a steady supply of chicken and eggs.

Poultry imports to Sri Lanka have been controlled since the first reported cases of avian influenza two years ago.