Festive season turns bitter for sweetmeat manufacturers
New Year festivities are in the air with Sri Lankans countrywide preparing to celebrate it during the COVID-19 crisis without much fan fare and traditional sweetmeats as its prices have become bitter at present.
Hundreds of sweetmeat producers at cottage level along with large and medium scale manufacturers have been badly hit by the skyrocketing of prices in ingredients, several traders said.
There is a huge demand for traditional sweetmeats as many companies including Perera and Sons, Sweet house, Monis and Jinadasa’s have already ventured into large-scale sweetmeat manufacturing.
According to manufacturers, there is a steady demand for traditional sweetmeats throughout the year but sales increase during the Perahera and New Year seasons.
Following the import restrictions the prices of green gram, cowpea, Undu (also called Urad), coconut oil and other essential ingredients for traditional sweet meats have been increased by around 375 per cent at present, they said.
Large-scale sweetmeat producers employ women who come from rural areas. These firms also find it difficult to maintain their business due to price hike in ingredients.
In the meantime, smuggling of traditional sweetmeat has increased recently, a senior official of the Sri Lanka Customs told the Business Times.
The Customs has seized a stock of undu imported into the country under the guise of corn, He revealed adding that this fraudulent smuggling has become a frequent practice recently under import restrictions.
The customs seized 58 metric tons of fraudulently imported ‘undu’ seeds worth more than Rs. 40 million in to the country from India on Tuesday.