Sharp drop in supplies to Dambulla Economic Centre

Enforcing strict regulations for the transport of fruits and vegetables in crates, has caused a sharp drop in the supply of fruits and vegetables to the Dambulla Special Economic Centre.

The Traders’ Association said that only potatoes and red onions supplies reached the market on the first day.

The Ministry of Cooperatives and Internal Trade said that it will strictly enforce the regulations from September 1. These regulations were gazetted on March 1, this year. Farmers and traders are now obliged to use plastic crates to transport vegetables and fruits.

N.B.Vijenanda of the Dambulla Special Economic Centre Traders’ Association said that on the first day the supply of vegetables dropped from around 2 m kg/ day to 0.5 million kg. The situation continued on the second day as well. He said that farmers do not bring vegetables to the market due to impending legal action by the Consumer Protection Authority (CPA).

However, the CPA has not supplied adequate plastic crates to the farmers or traders before enforcing this new regulation. Last week 1800 plastic crates were supplied to the Dambulla market. The Traders' Association said that at least 900,000 crates are needed to handle the vegetable supplies coming to the Dambulla market.

The price of crates too is high and farmers cannot afford it. A 50 kg crate costs Rs.1465, a medium size crate Rs.637 and small size crate Rs.525. Farmers and traders said that the CPA is taking ad-hock decisions without considering ground realities of this trade.

This is a matter that should be decided after a dialogue between all stakeholders and should be implemented step by step, Vijenanda said.

He said that the Institute of Post Harvest Technology has misled the authorities producing incorrect statistics. Traders said the main reason for post harvest loss of vegetables are; not harvesting at maturity and farmers not having the knowledge to handle the harvest of new hybrid vegetables. Therefore, agriculture authorities too are responsible for these losses and today most of the farmers cultivate imported hybrid seeds. In addition, post harvest losses of vegetables such as beans and ladies fingers will be higher if plastic crates are used in transportation as they easily dry and change colour.

According to the Ministry people are either lazy or unaware of the benefits of using the new system. However, the real situation is that there are several practical issues in the implementation of the new regulations.

Small farmers are the most affected as they use public transport to get their produce to the market. Traders said if crates are used it will need three lorries to transport the same quantity that is transported by one lorry using sacks. They said that the use of 25 kg sacks is a practical method to reduce post harvest losses in transportation instead of the 50-60 kg bags.

(GW)