Reputed certificate for cinnamon peelers
View(s):By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera
Sri Lanka’s Spice Council plans to award a certificate aligned to the American National Standard Institute to cinnamon peelers in a bid to uplift their labour standards, officials said.
“The cinnamon peeling season is about nine months and the peelers earn roughly Rs. 45,000 a month. They earn well, but there’s hardly any dignity in their labour. As they are competent in their job, we thought of issuing a certificate aligned to the American National Standard Institute to cinnamon peelers to recognise them,” Saradha M. De Silva, Chairman Spice Council told the Business Times.
Lack of cinnamon peelers always has been an issue, he said, noting that the Spice Council has been working on implementing a project to set up a Cinnamon Training Academy with the financial contribution of Standard and Trade Development Facility (STDF) of World Trade Organization (WTO) and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the government. STDF, UNIDO and WTO are granting US$ 830 million while the government is chipping in with $15 million.
“We hope the cinnamon peeler scarcity will fade off and the profession itself would be well established and (increase) demand as the project gets going,” he said, adding that this will train stakeholders in the cinnamon industry from nurseries to harvesting and producing ISO health standard certifiable products. “CTA will train the required cinnamon technicians (peelers) to harvest and peel hygienic products,” Mr. De Silva added.
The cinnamon industry has reported export values of around Rs. 16 billion in the last financial year, but the suppliers weren’t able to meet quality demands. “It has been observed that the quality of Ceylon Cinnamon has been in the decreasing trend and that there is a scarcity of superior grades of cinnamon,” Mr. De Silva said.
He said that the dealers and producers have lowered the quality of cinnamon to maximize profits during the price boom. “The exporters cannot meet the demand for cinnamon as the demand for poor quality cinnamon is low.” He said that ‘poor quality’ cinnamon fetches about $6 to $8 whereas the good quality cinnamon will get $17 to $18. “But this quality issue has to be arrested as soon as possible otherwise Ceylon Cinnamon will have a huge threat from cassia which is way cheaper and low in quality than Ceylon cinnamon,” he added.
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