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The news that the giant British supermarketeer Marks and Spencer will buy Sri Lanka's products to sell in its chain of shops around the world is certainly very encouraging.

According to the lead story in our business pages yesterday the Chairman of Marks and Spencer Luc Vandevel has met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Colombo and assured him that his company will be purchasing Lanka's products.

Interestingly the products Vandevel is looking at are mostly non-traditional. Of course the company will want Sri Lanka's tea and Ceramics, both areas where this country has an excellent worldwide reputation, but also at vegetables and furniture.

This must give our officials and planners some food for thought.

If these non-traditional exports find themselves on the shelves of a top supermarket such as Marks and Spencer other importers are also likely to explore the possibilities of getting these goods for themselves. Clearly there is a market here and it is now up to the authorities to gear up to fill the gap.

The chief of the Board of Investment Arjunna Mahendran has made the point at the meeting with Vandevel that Sri Lanka's exports need to be further diversified and this indication of demand from a major global player should provide the impetus for policy makers to explore new areas.

For many decades Sri Lanka was known around the world for Tea and Spices.

Then came the 1980s when our Apparel industry grew to the point where its export earnings quickly over took what the traditional exports were pulling in. Now Sri Lanka's Apparel sector is strong and we hope established well enough to thrive in the post-Multi Fibre Agreement era.

We now need to look at new areas of development.

Sri Lanka is a country that has repeatedly destroyed some of the good things we possess. For instance the large Tea and Rubber plantations that were run by private companies were ruined by nationalisation. Thirty years after nationalisation the Tea industry for instance is yet to reach the productivity levels it had maintained when the plantations were run by the private sector. The rubber plantations in the meantime have reduced in size drastically.

So if we are to produce some new non-traditional agricultural product that there is a global demand for we must be ready to accept that it should be in the private sector.

Some of the most productive tea plantations are the smallholdings and if we are to develop these new agricultural units producing some spicy exotica for the world market giving the right incentive for production to smallholders will be a good path to take.

Policymakers should also look to add value to the products. For this purpose processing foods, spices and other items to a globally acceptable standard is important.

The government would have to evolve an integrated program that would bring together agencies such as the BOI and the Export Development Board for this purpose. If large transnational companies in the food processing industry are enticed to Sri Lanka then they can set the trend towards this end.

In Pakistan and India these transnationals have set up their factories near clusters of smallholders producing everything from fruits to spices and have helped develop some prosperous rural communities.

Being relatively a small country where transport and shipping is easy to both east and west, Sri Lanka is in a perfect place for exports to flourish. It is incumbent on our planners therefore to look out for markets for whatever we can produce and set things in motion to fill the gaps.

The interest from Marks and Spencer should act as a beacon for us to follow and get more like them on board.

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