Primary Industries Ministry mulls implementing computer model to improve productivity of spices industry
The Primary Industries Ministry will be implementing a computer model to optimize the supply and the distribution of the growth of spices and allied products and increase productivity to reach a US$1.5 billion export target, according to the subject minister Daya Gamage.
“We will be setting up computer software, which will allow us to break down regions into clusters, and set up factories and infrastructure in ideal places around which spices should be grown,” he said.
He said that land use is already inefficient, which entrepreneurship and value-addition could address.
“The owners are in Colombo, visiting their lands once a month and, treating the sale of commodities as a secondary income. If more effort is put in, the land productivity could be increased fourfold, which will reduce the input costs for processing and make our products more competitive,” he said.
Gamage further added that the computer model could project what amount of supply would be required from Sri Lanka given the demand for the country’s spice products. “We should increase export revenue from spices to US$ 1.5 billion. Revenue from cinnamon should increase to US$ 1 billion,” he said.
Sri Lanka’s spice exports for the first half of 2017 increased 28.2 percent to US$ 160.7 million compared to the first half of 2016. The country’s total exports expanded by 5.2 percent in the same period.