Sri Lanka, July 9 -- For over a decade, Sri Lanka's poultry and livestock industry has sat across the table from successive governments, pleading for a rational, predictable maize import policy. Since 2012, industry representatives have raised the same warning at every meeting: without timely, adequate access to maize-the single largest raw material in poultry feed, accounting for roughly 50% of every feed formulation-the industry cannot function, and consumers will pay the price. Year after year, the response has been the same: half-measures, delays, and a policy environment that seems designed to squeeze the industry rather than support it. This year, that failure has reached its worst point yet.

A tax that kept climbing

The Special ...