Move to transport fruits, veggies in plastic crates opposed

by Rohana Jayalal

President, All Ceylon Wholesale Traders Association, Nishantha Mahaimbulwewa said they were against the use of plastic crates to transport fruits and vegetables which was proposed by Economic and Internal Trade Minister P. Harison Perera recently.

He said, “We support the proposal but the cultivators and the transporters should be paid the rates recommended by us.”

“The Minister said that he would pay more for vegetables transported in plastic crates. We wish to ask the Minister whether funds will be allocated for this purpose or whether there is an alternative source of funding or will the consumer be taxed.”

“We hope the Government will give us a firm assurance on the rates of payment before implementing the proposed scheme. If not we would withdraw our support,” he said.

It was former Trade Minister Johnston Fernando who first introduced this concept of transporting vegetables and fruits in plastic crates.

“This won’t serve any worthwhile purpose for cultivators, traders and transporters. It will in fact restrict the supply of goods to the market and the volume of goods transported will drop and will make the transport of fruits and vegetables more expensive,” Mahaimbulwewa said.

The authorities should devise a method to meet the challenge of price fluctuations. In the end it will only be a fairy-tale, if there is no prudent approach to the question of reintroducing plastic crates, he said.A Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) official said fruits and vegetables should be transported in either, wood, hard paper or plastic containers.

According to the official, the law would be imposed under Article 10 of the CAA Act and that legal action would be taken against violators.

According to the special Gazette issued in October 2011, vegetables that should be transported in plastic or wooden crates are tomatoes, beans, bitter gourd, cauliflower, lettuce, sponge gourd, brinjals, yard long beans, cabbage, knolkhol, capsicum, green chillies, winged beans, bush tomato, radish, cucumber, onion leaves, cucumber, carrot, ladies fingers, bell pepper, spinach, beet and spring onions.

The fruits are papaya, rambuttan, pears, passion fruit, mango, oranges, mangoosteen, guava, pomegranate, gadu-gudan, avocado, grapes and strawberries.

Annually, Rs. 25 billion is wasted due to poor packing and improper transportation. About 20-30% of fruits and vegetables go waste, while another 10% is discarded, as they don’t meet the standard sizes. Lorries that can hold 5,000 kg of vegetables, are loaded with 10,000 kg of vegetables, leading to a lot of spoilage.

Though the Minister’s concept to reduce spoilage is good, governments past and present have failed to address practical issues that arise with it, members of the Dambulla Economic Centre told Sunday Observer Business.The Trade Ministry should have done studies and trials before implementing this concept and the law governing it. The law should not have been introduced in an ad-hoc manner again.

They said, the government says that 40% of the vegetables are spoilt due to improper packing, while in fact, it is only about 5%, while pointing out that a gunny bag can hold about 50 kg of vegetables, while a plastic crate can hold only about 28-30 kg.

P. Ranbanda of Anuradhapura, a farmer cultivating winged beans, beans and bitter gourd for over four decades said, “Our farmers are the poorest and some harvest about 50 kg of vegetables per day. As there is no proper agricultural policy, on many occasions, our vegetables are sold cheap. The crate law will affect small-scale farmers severely.”

“Plastic crates have to be returned, which would be an extra cost.

The minister should visit the rural areas and witness the struggle of the poor farmers. Road are in a deplorable state, especially in the central hills. Even if the crates are given to us free, transporting vegetables in it would be a difficult task,” Ranbanda said.

Rathnapala, a farmer in Dambulla said, “The crates do not have a cover, therefore, there is a possibility of vegetables being stolen while being transported. I use a rented Dimo lorry to transport my vegetables, and carry 15 gunny sacks in one trip. I tried with crates and found I have to do two trips.

Upul kumara another farmer said, “A gunny bag can be purchased for Rs 20-Rs 30, but plastic crates costs between Rs 500-Rs 1,000.

We call upon on the government not to bring that concept again, because during the two days the Dambulla economic centre was closed last time and we lost of Rs. 50,000.”Sivanathan and A.A.Sugathapala farmers in Dambulla said, “We are poor farmers and transport our vegetables by bus. We bought two plastic crate at Rs 1,000 each but we coudn’t transport the plastic crates by bus because it needed a lot of space. We lost of Rs.5,000 per day.

Members of the Pettah Manning Market Trade Union, said, “We don’t like the concept because it will see more lorries coming to Colombo, or making more trips which would result in additional transport cost.”Lorry driver Dinesh Amarathunge said, “About 1,200 gunny bags of vegetables can be loaded in a lorry, only half that amount can be accommodated if the change is effected. The change should have been done methodically, not overnight.”

Lorry driver Mahindasena said, “This concept of plastic crates is not profitable for us, because we have to transport the crates back.”

Porters (natamis) K. Nathan, Devan Rasa, R. Peter porters said, “Gunny bags are easy to carry, while a crate would be a painful task.

As the quantity of vegetable in a crate is less, we will have to do many rounds. It is easy to carry and release the load when the vegetables are in gunny bags.”

According to data of the Institute of Post Harvest Technology Research, over 300,000 tonnes of fruits and vegetables are lost during post harvest operations. The value of this loss is around Rs 12,000 million per year, Poor post harvest handling during storage, improper packaging and transportation, diseases and inadequate storage facilities are some of the major reasons for such high post harvest losses.

In Sri Lanka it has been estimated that post harvest loss of fresh produce vary between 30 to 50 percent of total production at any point between farmer and consumer in the supply chain, depending on the commodity.

In Sri Lanka, fresh fruits and vegetables are packed mainly in polysacks for transport and this practice leads to serious losses. Of the total post harvest loss 75 percent is due to use of improper packages during handling and transportation.

A study was undertaken by the Institute of Post Harvest Technology (IPHT) to identify suitable packages, from a technical and an economic point of view, for handling and transportation of fresh commodities in Sri Lanka.

Among rigid containers evaluated in the study, such as nestable plastic crates, collapsible plastic crates, collapsible steel crates, wooden boxes, fibreboard boxes and wax coated fibreboard boxed, the nestable plastic crate was the most suitable package type for handling and transportation of vegetables and fruits.

The study revealed that the post harvest loss could be reduced from 20-30% to 5.8 percent when nestable plastic crates are used.