Due to the growing popularity of coco substrates in the horticultural industry and the quality of the Sri Lankan coco products, the industry has seen rapid growth. That means that the effects of the lockdown were also very big, both for the horticultural supply chain as for the 20,000 people working in the direct coco husk supply chain as well as another 100,000 indirect jobs.
With the breakout of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Sri Lankan government enforced a lockdown from the middle of March, causing numerous hardships to the industrialists. However, due to the timely intervention of ECAS (Exporter Association of Coconut husk-based substrates), the industry was able to get back on its feet again within less than two weeks.
