|
||||
Cargills,
not in pursuit of awards, but silently helping rural communities
Elsewhere in Sri Lanka – at Thambuththegama in Anuradhapura D M A Anura Kumara grows vegetables and also speaks about the benefits Cargills has brought to him and the village. “My home town is Kandy. My father got land here around 25 years ago in Oththappuwa, Thambuththegama. We were earlier cultivating paddy, but cultivating vegetables gave us good money and therefore we switched to vegetable growing. It is a pleasure to deal with Cargills. They pay better prices and payments are assured.” Across the country, the Cargills Group – to supply its giant supermarket Food City chain – has revolutionized the farming community and virtually eliminated the middle-man. In a field-to-market operation, through a supply chain of collection centres and hauling trucks, the organization has become a caring organization to farmer communities while providing consumers fresh field produce. A random survey of prices of some essential food items at Cargills Food City outlets and outside shows sometimes a sharp difference on the lower side at Cargills. The company has also entered the rice market, selling its own packeted brand at lower prices than that in the outside market. A recent trip across Sri Lanka by a team from The Sunday Times FT visiting farmer families showed that Cargills has become a powerful link between the farmer and the consumer. Among the features that have contributed to supplying quality low price vegetables are reducing waste drastically and adopting a two-way transport system. The techniques used by Cargills has also won the confidence and trust of the farmers helping them to provide quality produce as they are being guaranteed a stable unit price rate and prompt cash payments for their produce. The same techniques are used in the purchase of other food and food based products. These methods are proving to be successful and the company is gaining ground every day, increasing sales and winning loyalty amongst suppliers and consumers. Cargills (Ceylon) Ltd was established in 1844 by William Milne and Sime Cargill to deal with imports to cater mainly to the expatriates and the affluent. Today however it has turned into a winning national venture focusing on the development of the rural economy and bringing fresh and reasonably-priced products to the Sri Lankan consumer. To ensure an uninterrupted supply chain the company has selected different agro-ecological zones since when one area shows lower production the other areas would have a glut which also ensures the maintenance of a consistent price mechanism and uninterrupted supply. The turning point of changing the age-old Cargills concept to that of a major supplier of essential food stuffs to the local consumer base was as a result of a chance opportunity for Anthony A Page, Chairman, Cargills when he casually meet a group of vegetable farmers some five years ago. Since then Cargills has changed its focus to that of bringing produce straight from the fields to the shelves of the Food City stores. The company has adopted a new method of conveying vegetable in plastic crates which has revolutionized the vegetable conveyance process, reducing the national wastage limit of 45 percent to as low as eight percent. Even though the new method could carry only half the quantity that is transported in the conventional gunny bags, it pays back heavy dividends. Haridas Fernando, Agriculture Manager, Cargills said, “We have eliminated around 40 percent of waste by transporting vegetable in plastic crates. We are seriously working on reducing this eight percent too.” He said that around four percent is wasted in drainage and other four percent due to other problems, most of which could be avoided. Fernando said, “Steps are being taken to set up cold room facilities at collecting centres and pack the vegetable in retail quantities and if the cold chain could be consistently maintained from the producer to the consumer the balance wastage could also be reduced drastically.” To ensure high quality low priced produce to the consumer and decent prices to the farmers, Cargills pumps in Rs 5 million daily (over Rs 1 billion annually) – throughout the year -- to the rural economy, uplifting the living standards and the quality of life of the rural farmer. Rural farmers – benefiting from the Cargills supply chain – are well informed in farm management and are increasingly persuaded to use modern technology. The promotional work, monitoring and coordination with government departments, etc is done by qualified agricultural officers stationed in these areas. Cargills also has established links with all the NGOs, INGOs, various service clubs and community service associations to ensure various kinds of assistance to these farmers. The main collecting centres are at Norochcholai for vegetable and fruits; Divulapitiya for pineapple and coconut; Dehiattakandiya for rice; Thambutthegama for vegetables; and Hanguranketa, Bandarawela and Nuwara Eliya for vegetable, fruits and flowers. From Kilinochchi Cargills purchases quality bananas. At Karavilagaraya, Cargills buys coconut treacle. Fourteen families provide 850 bottles of toddy per week to process trickle. The quality is ensured with sealed toppers and brand labels. They too get high rates and prompt payments. Adjacent to Kalpitiya there are three areas -- Norochcholai, Poolachanai and Ilandady where it is a pleasant sight to see around 300 farmers cultivating around 3,000 acres on arid land. They are a combination of Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim families living in harmony and toiling for the last 50 years. The results have been encouraging with these farmers being a happy lot. In these areas the major crops are red onions and spring onions, a wide variety of vegetables such as carrot, cabbages, Chinese cabbage, brinjals, capsicum, Bangkok Guava, Batana (small type of pumpkins), chillies, Bandakka, Karawila, Wetakolu, Dambala (Winged beans), tomatoes, radish, etc are grown. Farmer M P Karunaratne (61) from Norochcholai has been a cultivator for the last 40 years owning 10 acres of farm land with his eight children were helping him throughout. Two of them are married now and out of his 10 acres two each have been given to the two married sons. Though they are educated and could have opted for white collar jobs, they are happy farmers and earn decent incomes. One of the sons, Shelton Wijesundara, 24, said he had passed his GCE O/Level with good results but the ‘good’ money he earns as a farmer wouldn’t be possible in any other job. Wijesundara, while watering his Batana plantation with a huge hose, said he could earn around Rs 150,000 per month and was happy with the relationship with Cargills. “We do not have to transport our produce to the Manning Market in Colombo any more,” he said adding that the earlier uncertainties of not being sure of the price, is not there anymore. “Farmers are very happy in dealing with Cargills because you are sure of your price – as long as the quality is good – and payments are on time.” The Sunday Times FT met several other farmers at Norochcholai bringing their produce to the collecting centre in bicycles, three wheelers, hand-tractors, tractors and lorries. All collection centres are computerized and connected to the company’s central network. Each farmer’s produce is sorted out, weighed and a computerized receipt is given. In all these centres there is hectic activity with the produce being weighed and neatly packed into plastic crates, and loaded to the refrigerated Cargills containers. There are 14 such refrigerated containers transporting the farm produce and where necessary, unloaded at Cargills outlets on their way to the Wattala Cargills Central Distribution Centre. By 4 am the containers leave Wattala in the distribution journey to the outlets and by morning Cargills patrons can buy their fresh vegetable which is less than a day old. On the two-day trip to farming communities and Cargills collection centres, The Sunday Times FT also met farmers at the Hanguranketha collecting centre and found up-country vegetables flowing in. In Nuwara Eliya, lots of farmers have taken to potato cultivation including many youth like R. Nadarajah of Chandatenne, Nuwara Eliya. He said he has been cultivating all kinds of vegetable for the last 20 years and also used to cultivate potatoes, which is a profitable crop. Cargills’ Page, reviewing the entire process that enriches the rural economy, conceded that they have to go a long way in completely fulfilling this task. He said they are on the correct path and prepared to accomplish this mission to the nation – providing more rural employment and reducing poverty. “Sri Lankans are spending 63 percent of their earnings for food and food related items, which could be considered as the highest in the Asian Region. We are proving that we could provide quality food at cheap rates,” he said. Paying reasonable prices, encouraging the farmers to use modern technology and communication makes farmers happy and feel that they are involved in a respectable job. He said due to the high level of poverty and unemployment, lots of people seek employment in other countries as unskilled labourers. “The way forward (in encouraging people to work here rather than go abroad) is the by bringing down the cost of food and at the same time providing opportunities to large numbers of unemployed youth in agriculture,” he added. Apart from farmers benefiting from decent prices, Cargills also employs more than 3,500 directly and with several thousands more given indirect employment. Cargills is looking at ways of increasing vegetable collection from the farmers and distribute excess supply to sellers outside the company network – as s service to the farmers. It is also exploring the prospectsof exporting the surplus. |
||||
Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
