Boondhi delights the young and the old alike:

Traders hit by soaring prices of ingredients

By Ananda Kannangara

Boondhi is sweet and delicious. It is a popular North Indian product. History reveals that boondhi was first introduced to the Sri Lankan market by North Indian traders. It was over 100 years ago. The Indian traders brought boondhi and exchanged them with traditional Sri Lankan sweetmeats. Even today boondhi is manufactured by North Indian industrialists and also by housewives in some provinces.

Bags of boondhi to be dispatched to the market. Pix: Sarath Siriwardana - Kalutara District Rowing Cor

Manufacturing boondhi has now become a large industry in the country. They are prepared only in some areas. In addition to the industrialists, boondhi is also made by housewives as a self-employment project.

Sri Lanka's South is famous for the industry. The Sunday Observer last week visited several parts in the South to interview boondhi manufacturers. Before we set out, we gathered that boondhi is manufactured on a large scale in towns such as Galle, Matara, Hakmana, Kalutara, Beruwela, Maggona, Aluthgama, Dharga Town and Payagala in the South.

Our journey to Dharga Town to meet boondhi manufacturers was very strenuous, but interesting. The remote village is located a few kilometres away from the Beruwela city. We walked on foot in search of a prominent boondhi manufacturer in the area.

The father of three, 59-year-old P.R. Farook is the owner of a boondhi factory. The half-built factory had a galvanised roof. The factory is small in size and seven persons including two women are employed. We saw many utensils including frying pans and large galvanised spoons, used to manufacture the sweet. Bags of sugar, wheat flour, bottles of oil and colouring packets were stacked in a small room. A few traders from distant areas were present to buy the products. At first, Farook was apprehensive to talk to us thinking that we were either from the Income Tax Department or from the Labour Department to get details about his business. But, a few minutes later he realised that we were from the media who had come for a story. Farook said an electronic media personnel too interviewed him and his workers last month for a documentary film on 'boondhi'.

He said the word `boondhi' had its origin in a hardly used language in North India and that it was not Tamil, Hindi, Thelingu nor Urdu. Farook said the main ingredients that are used to make boondhi are wheat flour, colourings, sugar and yeast. Boondhi is manufactured in two colours. Customers prefer red coloured boondhi to the yellow coloured. There is a big demand for the yellow coloured boondhi during the month of Ramazan.

He said there is brisk business for boondhi in the festive months of November, December, January and April. Traders from distant areas visited his factory at Dharga Town to buy the confectionery. Farook related an unforgettable story of how he was kept in police custody for a day for selling boondhi near a school at Padukka.

Mixing wheat flour with other ingredients

Boondhi being turned out

He said as schoolchildren like boondhi he opened a temporary stall near a school to sell the sweet and similar home-made products to the schoolchildren. A group of teachers one day warned him not to sell boondhi to schoolchildren saying that it contains too much sugar and colouring and was harmful for the health of the children.

"However, I paid no attention to the request; and suddenly the principal of the school visited my business place one day with the Police and took me into custody", Farook said.

Farzana Maharoof, a well-known boondhi maker in Kalutara said traders from far away places such as Jaffna too placed orders for boondhi during the months of July-August for the Nallur Hindu festival. She said with the dawn of peace many traders from the Northern District took to buying large quantities of boondhi from manufacturers in Kalutara and Maggona. "At present Jaffna traders obtain our products via road transport from Colombo. We hope, there will be good business when the Yaldevi train service commences next year", Farzana said.

A long-standing boondhi manufacturer, Anwer Lebbe of Yatiyana in Aluthgama said he earns about Rs. 50,000 a month by selling boondhi to several tourist hotels in Beruwala, Kalutara and Galle. He said he has planned to start a small boondhi factory in Jaffna early next year for the benefit of traders and customers in the district. Anwer requested the Government to help the small scale boondhi and other candy manufacturers to develop their business by granting bank loans, so that they could send their products to foreign countries, as well.

Roshan Gamage, 45, who runs a candy sales centre in Maradana, Colombo said a foreign tour group from England had tasted the boondhi at his stall and purchased some packets to take to their country. He said like the locals, foreigners too loved boondhi. He proposed to the Government to start a program to export them to foreign countries, especially the Middle East as boondhi is quite popular in Middle Eastern countries.

Roshan requested the authorities to start a sales point at the Bandarnaike Airport to sell boondhi and other sweetmeat products to the thousands of foreigners arriving and departing the country daily.

Kamaldeen of Maggona said about 20 families in his area are engaged in the boondhi manufacturing industry and many of them are doing it as self-employment projects with financial constraints. He therefore proposed to the authorities to introduce a scheme to grant loans through Sanasa Banks or Co-operative Banks to enable small scale boondhi manufacturers to develop their business activities. A long-standing boondhi manufacturer, 57-year-old Ramzan Junaid who is better known in Dharga Town, Beruwela as `boondhi Machan' said unlike in former times it was difficult to carry out the business due to the high cost of the ingredients.

"The price of sugar, vanilla colouring and wheat flouer is escalating in the open market daily, but the price of boondhi could not be increased in keeping with the soaring prices of the ingredients. Therefore, I appeal to the area Divisional Secretariats to register boondhi and other confectionery manufacturers and provide them with ingredients at concessionary rates".

According to a survey, conducted by sweet product manufacturers nearly 50,000 families all over the country are engaged in the boondhi industry.

There is brisk business for boondhi in Colombo. They are largely sold to customers in Bambalapitiya, Kollupitiya, Maradana, Pettah, Borella, Colombo Fort and Narahenpita.

A female boondhi seller Fathima Umma of Maggona said she takes her products to village functions and also supplies hotels and restaurants in Colombo. She said she earns around Rs. 50,000 a month by selling boondhi and similar sweets. She advised youngsters, especially the unemployed youth to start manufacturing boondhi as a self-employment project.