The Hindu Business Line : Sri Lanka implements IPC pepper project

Imports of pepper from the Island neighbour under FTA are restricted to 2,500 tonne while an almost equal quantity is imported under advance licence by the oleoresin and grinding industry.

Kochi Mar 17 The International Pepper Community (IPC)/FAO-assisted project aimed at improving the pepper quality and marketing of value-added products has been implemented by the Sri Lankan Department of Export Agriculture recently.

India is the major export market for the Sri Lankan pepper, which often was subjected to criticism by the trading community here as inferior in quality. Imports of pepper from the Island neighbour under FTA is restricted to 2,500 tonne while an almost equal quantity is imported under advance licence by the oleoresin and grinding industry.

According to IPC, the project on "Improved incomes and livelihoods of villagers in the Matale district, Sri Lanka, via productivity increase and quality improvement of pepper and marketing of value-added pepper products", has been successfully implemented.

The project aims at improving pepper quality through establishment of a package of small-scale equipment for threshing, blanching, decorticating, drying, grinding and packaging of pepper for collective use by a farmers' group in the area.

Training programme

The Executive Director of IPC, Mr Dede Kusuma Edi Idris, and the pepper processing specialist, Dr Risyafheri, recently visited Sri Lanka to attend a training programme for the farmers.

The training programme was held in Nelanda, in Matale District, where a spice processing unit has been set up, and was attended by the pepper farmers, extension workers etc.

The training programme is a part of a series of the project activities carried out by the Sri Lankan Department of Export Agriculture with the support from IPC and Regional Office for Asia Pacific, IPC sources said.

Earlier, a small-scale pepper-processing unit was set up in the district equipped with pepper thresher with berries separator, pepper blanching unit, decorticators, oven dryer, solar dyer, sun dryer and pepper cleaners.

Benefits

On completion of the project, it is expected that the pepper farmers near Nelanda could process a part of their green pepper harvest at the project site, and more importantly, to appreciate the need for improvement of pepper quality to obtain better returns, they said.

Farmers are expected to have better access to markets when their output is marketed collectively and have options as to the products they wish to market such as black pepper, white pepper, light berries, in bulk or in retail packs, the sources added.

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