New technology to produce high quality cinnamon

Ishara MUDUGAMUWA

The construction of a Cinnamon Processing Centre in Palolpitiya introducing new technologies to process cinnamon for export will be completed within the next eight or nine months, the Research Officer-in-charge K.G.G. Weerasinghe said.

This centre will help cinnamon cultivators and exporters to produce high quality cinnamon.

"We introduced two new varieties Sri Vijaya and Sri Gemunu last year. We now provide plants of these new varieties to farmers," Weerasinghe said.

"We could double the harvest from these new species. We can get 500 kilograms from one hectare of land. "There are over 30,000 hectares of cinnamon cultivated land in Sri Lanka and we can get 13,000 metric tonnes of harvest from this extent of land.

"The harvest will be increased with the introduction of these two new species in the future," he said.

Diseases call rough bark and white root affected Southern Province cinnamon plantations last year. Thousands depending on the cinnamon industry were feared of losing their jobs, Weerasinghe said.

"We introduced solutions and now there are no complaints about these diseases. There is a good market for cinnamon at present," Research Officer J.J. Jayasinghe said.