`The Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development Ministry has moved to expand the cold storage facilities of selected areas while also raising awareness among farmers, with the anticipation of bringing the amount of the average wastage of vegetables and fruits to a value lesser than 15 per cent.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (30), Deputy subject Minister, R.M. Jayawardhana said that while some of the halted constructions of storage facilities have been restarted, more plans are there to start creating more. "A cold storage facility at Dambulla with 5,000 metric tonnes storage capacity was on hold due to a dispute between the Indian company which was funding and the Sri Lankan company that was supervising it. Yet now, the Government has mediated and taken measures to start construction again," he said. "Further, we have plans to establish another three cold storage facilities in Keppetipola, Thambuththegama and another area under the funds of the Korean Government," he said. He further added that a suggestion has been passed on to the Food Security Committee to expand the storage facilities even further, and that discussions are ongoing about in which areas the facilities are to be established and in which capacity. He also added that it is hard to establish these facilities in dry zones, and that the priority is given to the upcountry areas.

Noting that a large amount of vegetables and fruits are wasted daily in the country, he attributed part of those wastages to improper transport methods and handling issues also. "A large amount of vegetables and fruits are wasted due to the lack of quality in harvesting also. For instance, fruits like banana, papaw and mango are made to ripen with chemicals on harvesting, and within a few days they get rotten. Earlier, till the fruit came to the consumer’s hand it gradually ripened,” he said. He added that discussions are ongoing within the Ministry to prevent these events and to bring in standards into harvesting also. Further, awareness programmes are held by the Ministry to enlighten farmers and transporters on how to and why to transport the fruits and vegetables with care. “Even fruits like tomatoes are being transported in sacks, and now they no longer use boxes or baskets. Some even sit on these bags while transporting. We are making the farmers aware not to do these,” he said.

According to a research conducted, around 19% of vegetables and 21% of fruits go to waste annually in Sri Lanka due to a lack of transport and storage facilities and the mistakes done in harvesting. Further, including the farmers in the Dambulla Economic Centre, farmers across the country have for years been raising concerns about the lack of cold storage facilities and the Government failing to provide opportunities for producing alternative products with these wasted fruits and vegetables.