Spice exports see marked improvement

Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

The spice industry in Sri Lanka has performed well for the past six months. Cinnamon in particular has recorded an improved performance. However, the country needs to increase the production capacity to meet the growing world demand. The industry seeks more support from the Minor Exports Crops Department as the country is unable to supply the world demand, National Chamber of Exporters Sri Lanka President Sarath de Silva told Daily News Business.

“We need to promote the production of spices such as cinnamon, pepper, cloves, mace and nutmeg. The country faces competition from emerging spice producing countries such as Vietnam where it has surpassed Sri Lanka in terms of yield per acre. Our yields are lowest in the world and we need to concentrate on production and value addition,” he said.

The country needs to move away from traditional planting areas and the Northern area too is a potential plantation land.

The Maduru Oya West bank has been identified as a suitable location for plantation and action is needed to encourage growers.

The quality of our spices is world class. However, processing has to be upgraded to meet the world requirements, de Silva said. Export of nutmeg and mace has maintained its momentum. The prices have remained high as Grenada, the second largest exporter after Indonesia has not recovered from the colossal damage caused by the typhoon a few years back, Spices and Allied Product Producer’s Association past Chairman G.S. Chatoor said. Mace has reached an unprecedented price level of Rs 2,300 a kilo in the Sri Lankan market.

The crop for 2010 appears to be good and the country could expect a growth in the export volumes, he said. The global spice production for 2009 was 337,974 tonnes whereas Sri Lanka’s production was 11,624 tonnes. The country’s contribution was 3.4 percent of world production. The global exports were 263,851 tonnes and Sri Lanka exported 5,155 tonnes a contribution of 1.9 percent.