Potential to tap international markets:

A spicy entrepreneur

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

Kelum Abeywickrama

In the business world, there are many instances where fathers pave the way for children to join the business. Some children take over the business while others do not. Director, Tropical Spices Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, Kelum Jayawickrama readily accepted his father’s invitation to join his business with “Delici”, a trusted name in spices in the domestic market.

He was interviewed by Daily News Business.

An old boy of D.S. Senanayake College, Colombo Kelum’s ambition was to be a doctor, but was short of a few marks to enter the university at the Advanced Level Examination. Thereafter he changed his mind and decided to become an entrepreneur with the blessings of his parents.

He said, “My father D.Jayawickrama was the founder of this company. I was very young when he took to business in 1989 in a small way.

It was set up at a small rented out house and in 2000 we were able to get a land from the Industrial Zone in Homagama. It was expanded with new machines, and we were able to provide employment to about twenty people, Kelum said.

Many challenges

“As a child I witnessed the success of my father’s business. He faced many challenges to bring the business to what it is today.

He did the most difficult part, then my elder brother also supported him until he secured another job.

I felt I could take it forward, because Sri Lankans use a lot of spices and it is a basic need. Therefore, he was confident that the demand for spices will never drop.

It is a sustainable business provided we supply good quality products to our consumers, he said. The company is in the process of getting certification for its products,” he said.

The product range of “Delici” includes chilli powder, curry powder, turmeric, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, tamarind, rice flour, Maldive fish, coriander and kurakkan. At present we need eight tons of dried chilli alone to meet the demand per month.

This is a tough and costly task because cleaning, grinding and drying spices has to be done manually which is a time consuming job.

Then we pack them into 50g and 100g sachets.

Our market share is only 0.5 percent and most of our products are sold at cooperative cities in highly populated areas in Kandy, Colombo, Kurunegala and Puttalam.

All these products are well preserved and can be kept for six months and we always maintain the high standard of quality in our products.

There are low quality products in the market at cheaper prices and it is a challenge, Kelum said.

Total production

People at work in the factory

Our “Delici” products are hygienically packed, economically priced, and the entire “Delici” range of spices are also attractively packed and marketed in polythene sachets of 5Og and 100g packs, he said.

Asked whether the company purchases spices from local growers, he said that unfortunately it is only a few things like cinnamon, cardamom and cloves that are available locally and all other items are imported.

The total production of green chillies in the country comes to the market as green chilies because the growers do not dry them as they need 5 kilogrammes of green chillies to make one kilogramme of dried chilli and the grower gets a better price by selling it as green chillies in the local market. In the past there were collection centres for chillies in Dambulla area but now people have given up growing them.

These are the problems of not having the requisite technology in the agricultural sector in our country, Kelum said.

Popular

According to market surveys carried out by Kelum, the demand for Delici products differs from area to area and his new product “Fish” curry powder is very popular and contains 14 kinds of spices.

All our products are sold but we do not have sufficient capital to expand and even if we obtain a bank loan, the interest rates are not affordable, Kelum said. The company has a monthly turnover of about Rs. one million today. Expansion has come to a halt because the banks do not wish to give loans on account of the crisis situation.

Although the banks give loans the high interest rates are not affordable to people like us.

Nevertheless, Kelum believes that this is an industry where products can even go to the international markets where Asians live, provided the country has a good agricultural system, infrastructure and vibrant marketing strategies.