Cardamom output’s not the issue, selling is

Bumper yields were harvested by cardamom growers in the Kandy district due to the monsoon. Cardamoms require a cool climate as found in the hill country, well distributed rainfall and forest cover. The Knuckles area is perfect for cardamom growing but is restricted in this region. New plantations are illegal but old plantations exist and they flourish due to the ideal conditions.

The Kandy Times met with a cardamom grower who owns a smallholding of 25 acres. He was expecting 300 kilos of fruit but explained that if it is cultivated properly, that is with manure, pesticides etc. that he could get about 900 kilos from his plantation. It was interesting to listen to his reasons for not investing in cardamoms.

Controlling theft was almost impossible, he said, as it was not feasible to employ more than one watcher. Crops were severely damaged by wild boar and monkeys – both menaces were also impossible to eradicate. Once the cardamoms are picked they have to be fired (dried in hot air barns) within two days. There are several old plantations that have the infrastructure to fire cardamoms but find that it is not profitable to do so. Consequently the crop is sold to ‘enasal maduwas’ (cardamom barns). There are several of these middle-men who conduct a lucrative business in this area collecting cardamoms from small holdings. They are secretive about their final market. These middle men hold the ace as they grade the crop and determine the price to be paid, the grower is in no position to demand as he has to dispose of his produce within the limited time period of one to one and half days.

An officer attached to the Agriculture Department, Kandy says that the reason for the restriction of cardamom growing in the Knuckles region was because of the operation of firing barns. Though it is a fact that cardamoms are grown under forest cover and clearing of forests is not necessary, trees are cut indiscriminately to be used as firewood to dry the cardamoms and this causes severe destruction of forests.

Special skills
“Cardamom picking needs skill, it is labour intensive and has to be done with care” a cardamom grower told the Kandy Times. The writer experienced first-hand the hazards faced by cardamom pickers during the interview. A message came that hornets had attacked his labour force. We immediately rushed to the field where it was found that eight pickers had been attacked. The Sinhala adage “Debaru avissuwoth, gamak vinaase vey” came to mind when I saw the state of the pickers. Some were semi-conscious and others howling in pain. They were all very swollen. They were packed into the vehicle and rushed to the Madulkelle hospital where the necessary medication was given. Apparently this was not unusual because while we were there another half truck of people was brought, workforce from a nearby estate, in similar state, attacked by hornets. The owner explained to me that these were hazards faced by workers. It was not only the vicious ‘debaru’ that attacked them, there were equally vicious big black ants (kadiyas) that constantly fell on them from the forest trees, then of course the leeches that are ever present in these areas not only attack their feet like when they pluck tea, in the forest these blood-suckers even get on their heads and faces. The cardamom pickers virtually cover themselves from head to feet to protect themselves. They deserve an added incentive for working in these conditions but how can their employers pay more when their profit margin is low, barely covering their cost. The ‘enasal madu’ owners fix the prices, sometimes it could be vary from Rs 60 -70 per kilo and if lucky, Rs 90 at times. The price is agreed upon when the cardamoms are still green and the grower commented, “We know we get ripped off here too but what’s the choice?”

Middle-man’s perspective
The Kandy Times spoke to a couple of ‘enasal madu’ owners and this is what they had to say; they all preferred to remain anonymous. A fairly successful businessman collects 3,000 – 4,000 kilos of green cardamoms a month. They have employed people who go around to cardamom growers and collect them. They also have growers who bring the produce direct to them. With experience they are able to ascertain the grade of the cardamom in the green stage though in fact, cardamoms are graded by buyers after the drying process. The cardamom barns we saw were fired with firewood collected from the area; this provides an income to a few people but the barn owners were not sure from where the firewood came – that is, whether they were illegally chopping forests or were they collecting from areas where it was possible to get wood from. One even said “that is not our concern, we need the firewood for our business and we pay the supplier well.” Once the green pods are put in trays and placed in the barn there has to be someone constantly to supervise the process and ensure that the fire keeps burning for 24 hours. At this stage it was said, “We have high overheads. We have to pay the men who collect the cardamoms from growers, we pay the people who supply firewood and we need labour and supervision for the whole process of drying the cardamoms properly.”

Mafia at the Cardamom Auctions?
When asked about how they disposed of the cardamoms, these middle-men were secretive but they all said that they do not go to the auctions. The auctions are conducted in Colombo in the manner that tea auctions are.

Every one of them had taken their cardamoms to the auctions and found that it was a no-win situation there; they never got an acceptable price. This same sentiment was echoed by several growers who had tried taking their cardamoms direct to the auctions. They explained that three to four people control the bidding and that buying prices are never allowed to go high. “Long gone are the days that cardamoms fetched even Rs 1,000 a kilo; there is a mafia at work here” was one comment. “This is a small income earner, so the authorities are not really interested in streamlining or regulating the auctioning process.” “When we don’t get a good price at the auctions and can get much better prices outside, why should we go to the auctions?”

These were some of the comments and are also the reasons why the growers who have firing barns do not bother to dry their own cardamoms. The price they get from the auctions barely cover their costs, sometimes even not and they do not have other contacts to sell the cardamoms to. As such it is practical to sell the green cardamoms to the middle-man.

The cardamom grower interviewed concluded that it was his personal opinion that in these circumstances it was not worthwhile to invest in his property by way of employing more watchers to safeguard the plantation or even manuring as his profits were marginal. “It is a pity” he said. “It is a fairly easy crop to maintain, which yields a harvest every 45 days and I’m sure growers will take more interest if they can obtain good profits”.