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| Wednesday, 9 February 2005 |
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Hot tips from the King of Spices by Aditha Dissanayake At the beginning of the 16th century the Portuguese came to this island. They were followed by the Dutch, and finally the British. All lured by the spices growing in abundance on our island. The country was renowned in the past as a treasure trove of spices. However, today, with the export market being dominated by tea and garments, only a few seem to recognise how fertile the country is for the spice trade.
Runage recalled how, as a young man with a half completed degree in economics, he had started to earn a living as a hotelier. He ran a Night-Kade with a friend called Nihal Kaluarachchi, doing all the work on their own, such as making tea, serving, washing-up and acting as a cashier. Later they parted to go their separate ways, Nihal to start selling
furniture, Runage to chop wood and sell them for fuel. When he saved Rs.
7,000 through selling firewood Runage married his childhood sweetheart,
Ranjani, settled down in a house owned by his father-in-law, converted the
front room into a shop and started to collect and sell cinnamon. Gradually
the business expanded and he began to send cinnamon to Colombo. "I wasn't satisfied simply selling the cinnamon to buyers in Colombo," explained Runage. "I wanted to find out what they did with the cinnamon they bought from me. I got friendly with an employee who was one of my buyers. Runage invited him home and learnt from him how to "bale" cinnamon. (to cut them into 42" sticks and make bundles). From then on, we began to sell cinnamon which were "baled". We could afford only one employee at the time. So my wife and I did most of the work. Life was tough those days". But soon, fortune began to turn in his favour and Runage managed to buy 50 acres of cinnamon land in Thihalgoda. Before long he had bought another 25 acres in Yatiyana, where in addition to growing cinnamon he built a factory to extract cinnamon oil. Today, he has two hundred and twenty five employees. Runage considers selling his first batch of cinnamon to an American buyer in 1999 as one of the triumphs of his business ventures. He says that penetrating the international market was difficult because most buyers were suspicious about the quality of Sri Lankan spices. "Today we are exporting cinnamon to sixteen countries and the demand is so high that sometimes we find it difficult to meet the orders. When this happens instead of sending low standard products we refuse to accept the order." Runage advises unemployed youth not to wait till someone offers a job. "All you have to do is look around you to come up with some means of earning a livelihood". He said his next innovative venture will be to export the peel of mangosteens". Runage says that there is lots of potential in other fruits and spices found in the country. Cinnamon can be used to make toffee and toothpicks and gingerly can be exported to countries like Korea. For more details about this innovative entrepreneur, watch Situ Medura tonight at 9.30 on ITN. |
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Among
them, one prominent entrepreneur is Piyatissa Runage. "We have the
best cinnamon in the world", Says Runage, CEO of Ratna Producers and
Exporters. The cinnamon grown here is called cinnamomum Zylanicum and with
its unique flavour and taste it is the only "true" cinnamon in
the world.
