The coconut and coconut based products sector plays a pivotal role in the foreign exchange earnings of Sri Lanka by offering a wide list of products to the international market. Sri Lanka has a relative comparative advantage in this sector due to its legacy and geographical location, skilled labor and indigenous technologies for processing. Industry information suggests that in Sri Lanka, about 25% of the total land Farming practices, new product development and market linkages. As a major beneficial harvest in the country, the coconut industry provides employment to a great portion of the SME sector and has always been a focus area of the Government of Sri Lanka’s international trade and policy.

A couple of technical institutions support the developing technology for coconut processing for making value added products. The key institutions working in this sector in Sri Lanka are: 

• Coconut Research Institute: for product development ITI – for processing machinery
• Universities – for product testing some and research into production, processing, and trading aspects of the coconut industry.

Industry data shows, Sri Lanka’s export of coconut fiber increasing steadily as a raw material demanded globally. The export is seen to be dominated by finished products such as fibre pith, moulded coir products and coir broom and brushes which contributed more than 82% of the total export.

Government policy and support available in the sector is available through The Coconut Development Authority is a premier government institution involved with the development of this sector in Sri Lanka. They run capacity building and hand holding programs for farmers as well as processors in three areas.