Financial Times

Food by definition is something we can’t live without. The thing is you need something to liven it up on the whole; to add that extra oomph. And where do we get that from, that little (or large) oomph. It’s spice.

Sri Lanka grows the best cinnamon on the planet – that’s a fact. There are also a number of other crops that have a reputation for being more pungent then those grown elsewhere. The problem is, as is all too obvious, the country is a rather small island when it comes to mass production.

The Spice Council was set up two-and-a-half years ago to look at ways for the spice sector to move forward in the eyes of the world. And that is why The Sunday Times FT was talking to Sarada de Silva, Chairman of the Spice Council.

If a visit is paid to the council’s website there is the opportunity to see what the plans are to improve the industry, as well as those that have to be overcome. De Silva admits that the list was very frank, “but it needed to be”.

As a fourth generation member of a spice family, the chairman knows about the need to make a profit, but it’s also about the love of the product. “In this business you need to identify the key factors and not think about mass marketing as this country just isn’t big enough. There isn’t enough land or enough people in the business.”

So a niche market is what is being aimed for; something that is possible due to the unique products that come out of the soil here. The people growing the spices are, as a majority, small-scale farmers, where collectivization is not used. The idea is to get these farmers to work together and find those niches, learn how to ensure productivity and then export the product to a standard that the world markets accept.

“A problem here is that not all government departments are up to scratch. It is something that has to be worked on,” he admitted.

And there is a huge market out there, especially central and northern America where Mexico imports 55 percent of the Sri Lankan cinnamon harvest. A major problem is the lack of technology. The technology is out there it just needs to be brought in. There is also a shortage of workers in the sector, especially cinnamon peelers, hence last week’s announcement about the opening of a cinnamon academy to train people to ensure standards are met.

Other than the academy, there is a village project concerning pepper and cloves, where efforts are being made to make it the “model” village for others to follow. The reason for a model village is to show the potential for such crops. One introduction is low-cost driers, wood fuelled, due to the harvest season coming during the monsoon season. To be cost-affective, the furnace must not add more than Rs 4 per kg. The project is to start next month.

Part of the reason for the project at Rattota, with its 110 spice producers, is to also to tell people that subsidies just make them lazy. In the village, those participating have invested in themselves, and after three months training should be up to the task. If successful, and the chairman is very hopeful, 10 more villages will follow suit.

De Silva’s hope is that if the project works (and he has no reasons to see why it shouldn’t), other villages will jump onto the bandwagon when they realise that there is money to be made.

As he said, “We are looking at the villages we train to be producing 30 percent of the total exports by 2010. But if you ask me as an individual, I think that figure will be higher.”

Factors that have helped is that people involved are beginning to realise there should be standards reached, and with the present government’s more direct interest, “I am hopeful”. Of course, that was before the decision to end fertilizer subsidies, but the council chairman is still optimistic.

To also help sell the produce, branding has become a big thing, which again leads to the need to work out standards to ensure a constant quality. “At the moment there are five companies that have the good fortune to have the right equipment to ensure their produce is up to those standards where they are exporting to. For the others, there are basic labs that are adequate,” De Silva said.

The reasons for this are the differing standards of the export markets they want to continue delivering to. What is needed is for the testing labs to come up to the standards set by the US, EU and Japanese. “Presently, we are lobbying companies here to understand the standards and work towards them. The thing here is that if they don’t there will be no market. But of course these companies need help to reach these standards, meaning that particular financial institutions will have to be approached for loans.”

Money is also needed to encourage research and development, but here companies need to invest themselves to improve their end results. This also encompasses the government to ensure that genetic fingerprinting is accounted for to ensure proof of origin.

Even though productivity is pretty good, De Silva said that production can only improve with the right training and incentives. He offered an example that presently a hectare can produce 450 kilograms of a particular spice. “But with the right education, that figure can easily rise to 1,000 kilograms per hectare.” But the talk always came back to the government. Even though it is seemingly agriculture positive, there seems to be a problem when it comes to actually implementing the proposals that are agreed. “That is very frustrating,” the chairman said.

Returning to the farming problem, when it comes to the lack of land, it seems that plantations can join in as rubber plantations are conducive towards cardamom, turmeric and ginger, while coconut plantations are fine with cinnamon and pepper. “People are gradually picking up on this extra crop potential,” he said.

And these avenues should be used as the price of cinnamon has been on a rise for quite a few years now, and according to the Spice Council chairman, “Cinnamon is the only crop where skills need to be learned. At the moment there is a shortage of cinnamon peelers to the tune of 20,000. The skills needed for the other spices can be learned very quickly, whereas a cinnamon peeler needs a good six months training. With that training a person can earn a minimum of Rs 15,000 a month. I will admit that the job is repetitious, but a peeler can earn more than a newly qualified doctor. The problem is persuading people to learn and not move to Colombo, say, to earn their ‘fortune’,” he said.

“The thing is if we increased the cinnamon crop by say 30 percent, which really isn’t difficult, that could bring in an extra $17 million to those in the trade.”

What is also needed is a re-branding of the job title. De Silva said that a PR company will be hired to do that: to give social recognition to those doing the work. “It’s like 20-30 years ago when a cook was called a cook. Due to a bit of re-branding there are now all called chefs, with particular skills. It just makes the job sound more glamorous and gives that person more self-esteem.”