Seminar on 'Post harvest packaging technology'

The National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka with the support of the Sri Lanka Institute of Packaging along with its subsidiary company, the Packaging Development Centre with the assistance of the Ministry of Industrial Development, and the International Labour Organization have invited two experts - Dr. Pattra Maneesing of the Thai Packaging Centre and Prof. Jingtair Siriphanich of Kasetsart University, Thailand to visit Sri Lanka on March 18.

They will be taken on field visits to give them an opportunity to observe post harvest packaging practices of fruits, vegetables and cut flowers/foliage adopted in Sri Lanka. A full day seminar will be held on Friday, March 20 at the Dambadeniya Export Production Village, Narammala.

North Western Province growers, transporters, wholesalers, retailers, exporters of fruits, vegetables and cut flowers/foliage will participate in the seminar that will be conducted in Sinhala and English. The two Thai experts are expected to submit a report on their observations and their proposals to improve the post harvest packaging in the country a few weeks after their departure. It is often reported that Sri Lanka experiences around 40% to 50% in post harvest losses of its agricultural products. The main contributory factors for these losses have been identified as inadequate packaging and poor transport patterns in the distribution chain.

This is a matter of grave concern to everybody with the escalating global food prices. Even though, stakeholders in the harvesting and post harvest operation had made an effort to minimize spoilage in the last two decades, the problem remains virtually unresolved. Several organizations including the manufacturers of packaging materials have taken much effort to present new proposals and are trying to implement them. However, their efforts have so far not been fruitful to reduce this colossal waste that affects the country's economy in a big way.

Thailand, a fast developing country in the Asian region, an active member of the Asian Packaging Federation, has been able to reduce their post harvest losses to a great extent by improving the post harvest handling and post harvest packaging practices.

As the first step in this series awareness programs will be organized with Thailand and the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka with the support of the Sri Lanka Institute of Packaging.

The Packaging Development Centre sent a group of industrialists from Sri Lanka to follow a seven-day training program on Post Harvest Technology and Packaging of Fruits and Vegetables at the Thai Packaging Centre, Bangkok in October 2008.