Webinar guidance on post-harvest management for coffee and spice businesses

The Export Development Board (EDB) has collaborated with Australia’s Market Development Facility (MDF) to conduct webinars for spice and coffee businesses, designed to share knowledge on better post-harvest management and storage practices as well as technological solutions available. 

This initiative was introduced as Sri Lanka’s agricultural value chains have been among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis, resulting in declining sales and increased wastage and post-harvest losses (PHLs) due to the breakdown of global supply chains. The crisis has thrown into harsh relief the need for comprehensive awareness on good post-harvest management.  

To ensure the success of the webinars, MDF and EDB worked with GrainPro (a post-harvest handling and storage solutions provider for agricultural commodities) as the technical partner for the initiative.  The information covered included post-harvest processing best practices and available GrainPro solutions for storing spices and coffee for longer periods without deterioration in quality.  

“Knowing how much coffee farmers, traders and processors value their commodity, GrainPro provides the ‘hermetic’ solution for coffee by giving it a safe and longer storage duration without the use of chemicals,” noted GrainPro Regional Manager Allen V. Quintos. Effective storage is paramount in a crisis in which global supply chains are disrupted to the extent that many sellers have no visibility of their next export order.  

The webinar for the coffee sector was particularly well-attended, including key players operating in Sri Lanka’s specialty coffee scene. Webinar participants compared notes on their ongoing PHL mitigation techniques and storage capacities, while also taking the opportunity to maximise on GrainPro’s expertise and advice.  

“When we started the coffee business, we found it difficult to access technical know-how. Whatever we have achieved up to today is due to self-taught knowledge. This webinar was highly commendable and a timely initiative to expand the technology, value chain and capacity. And, most importantly, regain the place Sri Lanka once had for our coffee,” stated LYBS Lanka Director Harshini Senanayake. 

MDF, an Australian Government funded multi-country initiative, is currently supporting businesses in its partner countries to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. In Sri Lanka, this includes working in tourism as well as agriculture and fisheries value chains.