Spicing up business

Spice Council names 2011 as year of ‘Value Addition’

The Spice Council of Sri Lanka (SCSL), in a bid to increase its export earnings to reach the US$ 1 billion target by 2020 has named 2011 as the year of ‘Value Addition’ in the spice industry.

Accordingly, Agriculture Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene made this declaration at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the SCSL held last weekend.

Addressing members of the SCSL, the Minister said that Sri Lanka had lost lot of revenue that it would have gained through value addition and that the time had come to correct the situation.

“We must learn from our past mistakes. Sri Lanka incurred many losses by exporting spices in bulk form and the time has come for us to change and make the industry grow with value addition,” the Minister said.

Newly-elected Chairman of the Spice Council D.A. Perera said that like any other industry, the spice industry was also undergoing changes.

He said that some exporters were now using the latest technology and knowhow to ensure value addition to their exports. To make this process more effective, the time has come to set up a centralised research centre in the country in order to help the exporters in this regard.

Commenting on industry grievances, the Chairman pointed out that the time had come for cinnamon to shift from being labour intensive to mechanisation.