Sri Lanka Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in Sri Lanka, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals.
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Agricultural Sector
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Overview

Sri Lanka’s agriculture sector faces significant challenges. It requires capital investment to modernize operations and efficient, recurrent spending to sustain and maximize the success of those investments. Food security remains a central policy focus, but long-term development strategies are weak and inconsistent.

Agriculture’s contribution to the overall economy has steadily declined, while the agricultural labor force has shrunk more slowly. This mismatch, combined with the failure to implement structural reforms that would improve land and labor productivity, has led to poor sector performance, particularly in food security and farm income. Inefficient public spending, including misallocated resources, short-term initiatives, and neglect of priority areas, has also contributed to the sector’s decline.
Food inflation and the overall cost of living remain high, though there was a modest improvement in  2025. In 2024, food and beverage imports were valued at approximately $2.46 billion. Many of the restrictions on imports imposed during the economic crisis have now been relaxed.

Leading Sub-sectors 

  • Animal feed
  • Edible vegetables and fruits (HTS codes 7 and 8)
  • Dairy products
  • Sugar
  • Wheat
  • Legumes (Red Lentil, Chickpea) 
  • Cotton, yarn, and fabric

Opportunities

  • Edible Fruits and Vegetables: Sri Lanka imported approximately $8.5 million in products from the United States under HTS codes 7 and 8 in 2024, compared to total imports of $400 million.
  • Animal Feed: Animal feed is the largest U.S. export to Sri Lanka, which is largely utilized in the poultry sector to produce chicken meat and eggs. In 2024, Sri Lanka imported $127 million of soybean meal, with the United States supplying 85 percent of the total supply. Soy, in the form of soybean meal and corn, are the primary ingredients used in the poultry industry for animal feed. Roughly 300,000 metric tons of corn are imported annually to supplement local production. 
  • Cereals: Sri Lanka imported $10 million of cereals, mainly wheat, from the United States in 2024.
  • Food and Beverages: Expansion of the tourism industry is creating opportunities for U.S. suppliers of beef, duck, turkey, cheese, wine, and imported fruits. Many of these are seasonal imports timed to coincide with the peak tourist season.
  • Cotton, Yarn, and Fabric: Sri Lanka imported approximately $132,777 of cotton products from the United States in 2025, including raw cotton, yarn, and fabric. U.S. cotton suppliers have substantial opportunities to serve Sri Lanka’s export-oriented apparel sector. Other major cotton suppliers to Sri Lanka include China, India, Indonesia, and South Korea.

Resources

Ministry of Agriculture (MoA)    Department of Animal Production and Health (DAPH) 
Food Control and Adminstration Unit

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