Abstract:
Though agriculture is one of the dominating sectors in Sri Lanka its contribution to GDP is declining
regularly and the industrial sector is grabbing the place day by day. Therefore, agriculture export is a key
strategy in developing and promoting agriculture sector. But agricultural products exporters usually face
numerous and increasing trading requirements and limitations on agricultural products. Therefore, most
of the SMEs are reluctant to initiate agriculture exports. Generally (small and medium scale exporters)
SMEs contribute to at least 85% of total enterprises and constitute more than 90% of all non-agricultural
private enterprises. In this context, it is important to identify export barriers involved in export
agriculture in the process of developing the sector. Structured questionnaire was used as data collection
instrument and direct interviews, mail questionnaire and telephone interviews were conducted to collect
primary data. One hundred and five small and medium scale agricultural firms; were selected as the
sample by simple random sampling technique. Most of the firms used to sell their products through
intermediates rather than directly selling to end users. Some of SMEs were unaware on government
assistance programs and they do not take the advantage of government assistance in implementing and
planning strategies. According to the factor analysis, barriers to export agricultural commodities were
identified as finance and certification barriers, competition, barriers for marketing, cost and regulations,
political barriers, barriers to skill and export knowledge, information and tariff barriers and subsidy
barriers. The findings of the study would be helpful to exporters, policy makers and all the stakeholders in
future decision making, regarding agricultural exports.
