News
Ginger prices jerk skywards; might have to import
View(s):By Kasun Warakapitiya
Unplanned cultivation, ignorance of farmers as well as shortage of ginger seedlings had caused an increase in market prices of ginger.
The Department of Export Agriculture pointed out that due to the lack of ginger seedlings the farmers were unable to cultivate the expected amount causing the harvest to fall short of the expected amount.
Additional Director General (Development) of the department, Upul Ranaweera described that as it takes eight months to produce ginger harvest, it is difficult to immediately restore shortages via cultivation.
“When shortages occur, the prices of a kilo of ginger shoot up to Rs 2000 – 3000 due to high demand even though the cultivation cost to produce the same amount remains around Rs 300 ”, he elaborated.
Additionally the farmers’ unplanned cultivation practices, such as mass cultivation of ginger following a shortage, too upset the supply and demand causing prices to plummet, driving the farmers to carry out less cultivation due to lack of interest due to poor prices.
The Additional Director also admitted they too are partly to be blamed as they were unable to make availability of ginger seedlings for farmers from 2022 onwards, as their budget allocations were restricted after the pandemic due to economic constraints.
Mr. Ranaweera said that they do not have authority to regulate farmers, yet are aware of the national requirements by obtaining information from the Department of Census and Statistics.
According to him they have planned to provide ginger seedlings for concessionary prices to reduce the shortage and urge the farmers to cultivate more.
Even though the seeds were made available this year the next cultivation is set to take place in January to April – therefore the harvest would be collected in August to December, and resolving the shortage would take nearly two years.
The department also asserted that as the harvesting of ginger for this year is reaching its end in this month, the shortage might increase during the months of July, August and September and would prompt them to import ginger.
Apart from that the department also called the farmers to monitor the trends of prices, availability and demand of ginger before cultivation to help manage the situation.
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