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Chief Guest of the event former Minister of Education Karunasena
President of the organisation M.C.M.J. Bandara
By Waruni Paranagamage
The National Floriculture Producers Association recently held its first meeting at Sirikotha to get the support from the Government to expand its business network in order to meet the overseas buyers, following a concept presented by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
More than 200 producers gathered emphasised that they need a well organised association to represent them and take grass root level problems to administration. The association aims to expand its fast growing local floriculture market and make use of facilities from the Government to tackle the international market.
The association represents Small and Medium scale (SME) planters in the Western Province who grow flowers, medical plants, fruits and fancy plants. Among them many of the producers are keeping their business networks at ‘Diyatha Uyana’ and others have small scale business networks at their homes or own places.
The Chief Guest of the event former Minister of Education Karunasena Kodituwakku said that the association would be a platform for all the farmers who are engaged in floriculture and enthusiastic to enter the international market to reap the benefits.
“We need national level leaders to represent the floriculture SME sector and take their problems to administration. We should support the women in floriculture and assist them to enhance their business. We should also promote the value of the industry among the people,” he added.
However the industry faces a lot of problems due to lack of proper places for their selling, poor guidance, poor maintenance and poor organising. Hence, the export market of floriculture, medical plants and fruit plants in Sri Lanka is still handled by the large scale business communities. Even though there were some programs carried out by the previous Government to uplift the flower plantation in the local market, they believe that the concept would provide them more financial benefits and international experiences.
The President of the organisation M.C.M.J. Bandara said that even though they had been handling floriculture for 50 years, the time has come to access the international market to increase the quality of the field and reap the financial benefits.
“First we started the market by selling the plants at Sudarshi hall. However now we have developed our capacity and it is time to enter the international market. The Prime Minister will help us to develop our business and go beyond the local market,” he added.
According to the data by the Export Development Board (EDB) in 2014 Sri Lanka was able to earn $ 14.9 million worth of foreign exchange by exporting floriculture products indicating an average growth of 5% over the year 2013. Increasing trending exports indicate the rising demand for Sri Lankan products in many markets around the world. The sector generates high net foreign exchange earnings to the country while contributing to employment generation in the rural and sub urban areas.
Europe is the main market for floriculture products; 60% of Sri Lankan exports are destined to the western continent, while Japan, Middle East, the USA and Korea make up the other key markets.
Pix by Lasantha Kumara
