Why Sri Lanka is Collapsing: the Coming Global Food Crisis

Audio editing by Eric Schneider
Motion graphics by Vincent de Langen
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster
Writing & Direction by Evan

This includes a paid sponsorship which had no part in the writing, editing, or production of the rest of the video.

Video supplied by Getty Images
Maps provided by MapTiler/OpenStreetMap Contributors and GEOlayers 3
Select footage from the AP Archive

[mitchells]

I am sad the fertilizer import ban was only covered for 30 seconds. In Sri Lanka, just over 1/4th of the population works in agriculture. That's compared to less than 1% in the United States. When your government is dumb enough to ban fertilizer imports, and massively decrease crop yields, things are going to get very ugly! And that's before the debt, tourism drop, and food and energy prices skyrocketed.

[brownbrudda]

Sri Lankan here. Like explained in 13:27 I cannot explain or comprehend how we went from living a middle class life of being able to eat out fairly regularly/ being able to buy clothes/ having meat every other day/ having milk and being able to travel anywhere/ being able to afford things that we to not being able to do or afford any of that. We were barely able to buy enough rice and pay class fees this month. We couldn't afford to buy milk powder or gas and we couldn't even buy eggs or fish to feed even our pets. But thank god we live in the country side, so there's enough jack fruit/yams/sweet potatoes in our back yard and we can use wood instead of gas. Looking at the numbers is easy but living this life is hell. Thank you for covering this story.

Edit:- So to the people asking how I have internet... Sri Lanka was the fastest developing country in South Asia before all of this went down so our internet infrastructure is usable (it's not good but gets the job done) And also like I mentioned our family was a middle-class family.... So we were able to afford luxuries like phones/laptops/wifi etc. The economic collapse happened months ago so we were able to live normal lives before that haha (also the internet is available to any one with a phone and a data signal so idk why people are so baffled lol)

[ribbonstar]

To my friends in Sri Lanka, hang in there!
We in Indonesia experienced the same thing in 1997-1998, we toppled a corrupt & authoritarian regime of 32 years after people fed up of the situation.
We couldn't afford fuel, food, milk, as Indonesian Rupiah currency devalued by 600% in a short time. Many people who had money left the country but our family who barely had anything had no where to go but staying put and fight for a change.
Keep yourself & your household safe. The storm will pass. 🙏

[RAKITHA]

Sri Lankan here, id like to say that the root cause of this is financial mismanagement and the alleged missing $19bn (debated on how much was actually stolen) stolen over time by powers in charge, this would have gone under had the covid issue not happened - as the three biggest forms of income - expats, exports and tourism stalled. In the past we usually borrowed a few billion to cover the remainder and everything was stable. The organic farming was due to the lack of dollars to import fertilizer, instead of admitting that they had no cash they just decided to cut fertilizer even though advisors were against it. This caused a crash of ceylon tea and the effects of it will be apparent next month as the food stores will be empty (India, Japan and Bangladesh are said to supply humanitarian aid), there are huge fuel lines, and there were kilometer long lines everywhere - and some people stay and sleep in their vehicles for days and cooking gas is also gone. Yesterday busses halted their services as they cant get enough diesel to run them. Doctors, professionals, workers and students who are able to flee are fleeing in droves and more than 100, 000+ escape per month. I work as a mid level IT executive and many peers i know have left or are considering it, being a bit of a stoic if i cant go anywhere else im going to hunker down and ride the storm. But things will be really ugly once the poor hit the streets

Update - 10/6 - fuel lines are still present, power cuts still happen and food prices are just the was as it was but large stores in cities are going empty slowly (cities are the worst place to be during a crisis - if you own an apartment then it's game over), the dollar has somewhat stabilized and even the black market has received a short drop, a billionaire has been appointed as a minister (might actually benefit himself and his billionaire pals in this crisis than focus on fixing the issue)

[likdev-]

I'm living in Sri Lanka and lots of people just point at the politicians and look away, thanks for educating everyone about the whole story and pray the YouTube AI to recommend this to our people.

[duoandaone]

As a Sri Lankan I'm thankful to people like you, for making it so that everyone else can learn from our mistakes.

[flonga]

This can happen anywhere. Protect your rights as citizens, vote local to national, and “tend to your garden.” Appreciate your community and rise above adversity, corruption, and evil.

[nknkannadiga]

As an Indian, I feel that all my neighboring countries are going to face this issue. Lately nepal has banned some imports to sustain themselves.

Edit: Pakistan has banned mobile, paper and tea import. They are asking their citizens to stop consuming tea.(25/6/2022)

2. Bangladesh has demanded 4 billion dollars from IMF( 27/7/2022)

[oshadhafernando]

Well I must add, the sudden shift to organic fertilizer was actually because our country being unable to afford chemical fertilizers. And to save face "Organic Farming" was introduced without any warnings or prior practice. With 1/4 of Sri Lankans being farmers and barely making enough food supplies to sustain itself, the drop in yields hit us hard.

[sanjeays]

As a Sri Lankan and a long-term subscriber of this channel, it breaks my heart to see us being featured this way. But excellent summarization of the crisis and hopefully, more Sri Lankans will see this in their feed.

[chalanivlogs]

Hi. Very informative video. As a Sri Lankan I highly appreciate your efforts and your honest opinion about the current situation.

[thomas]

“At first you go bankrupt slowly, then all at once.”

- Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel, The Sun Also Rises

[virathdealwis]

As a Sri Lankan, despite the topic, I'm happy one of my favourite YouTubers made a video about us... Could you by any chance make a video going more into what can be done? Specifically how corruption can be overturned or the necessary steps.

[jeanettedadzie]

My country Zimbabwe went through this terrible phase in 2008. Highest inflation on the world. A trillion dollars in your pocket and you couldn't even afford a loaf of bread. Queues for basic commodities became the norm. It got to a point where the super rich political elites could not even enjoy the money they continuously looted from the country they had destroyed so thoroughly as every sector of the economy collapsed. Unfortunately we are at the beginning of the same all over again like our government learned nothing. It is so disheartening. People underestimate how important good leadership is and it seems Zimbabwe has been cursed with some of the worst out there.

[zachblue]

As a Sri Lankan, watching this video made me cry😣. Due to the increase in the dollar to sri lankan rupee exchange rate, all of my university expenses tripled in Sri Lanka. The most upsetting truth is that we never stole dollars from our country; instead, it was the politicians. Due to something we did n't even do, we are today suffering greatly.🥺

[ck]

This collapse was very well explained and the seemingly dry economic jargons like trade deficits, balance of payments, foreign reserves etc... is so well put into relevant context and in layman's terms so the viewer with average background in finance can really understand how global economics impact local economies. Sad to hear what is happening in Sri Lanka but bravo for the channel in putting this very interesting and educational piece here.

[robertscheinost]

My University in the USA had many students from Sri Lanka 25 years ago. They represented the largest group of Foreign students at School and I became very friendly with several of them---They were great people! I was aware of their Country's problems but I didn't think it was THIS bad (and getting worse). My heart goes out to all of Sri Lanka's population. I hope things change for the better SOON!

[SkullTraill]

What I really appreciate is the high quality, and relevant stock footage used. Not just some old footage from rural areas designed to make the country look bad, but real, modern, relevant footage that shows the reality of the situation in the country now. And also a very balanced and unbiased video. Well done.

[BangMaster]

If the Pandemic has revealed anything, it's how connected we are as a Global Economy, and how inefficient and inadequate Governments are at dealing with crisis.

[eritastic]

My online friend who's around my age lives in Sri Lanka, and she and her mother are actually quite well-off. But the economic crisis Sri Lanka is having is causing a tremendous impact on many people she knows, and I just hope that a miracle can happen for Sri Lanka. I hope things will improve soon, because this is really at a massive low.