Corona and strategies: Model for proper food management

Thursday, 14 May 2020

We can see many start to talk about the problem which farmers who cannot sell their products and distributing vegetables and fruits to the consumer in different areas. Even in this time, one report said that more than 900,000 kilos of vegetables have been purchased by the Government by last month.

Some seasons you can see excess vegetables like pumpkin which farmers are finding it really difficult to sell. This is not an exceptional case in corona time and we have witnessed the same problem for decades.

In one way you need to argue that we should have proper value additions as well as marketing strategies for the products. Anyway, there is a problem with having an updated food balance sheet for Sri Lanka.  And also, it is important to note that “550,000 metric tons of vegetables and fruits were being wasted a year due to the post-harvest damage and its loss to the nation amounted to over Rs. 67 billion” (Daily Mirror – 28 August 2019). So there is a requirement for proper supply chain and an efficient national plan on this.

The expectation of this article is to emphasise the need for having amalgamated plan of food habit and food supply. We can see the above mentioned factors being discussed in different forums, but both can be considered as the flip side of the same coin.

People in the country should be educated on the nutritional value of vegetables, fruits, and all food items which are produced in Sri Lanka. Then you can expect a greater demand aligned with the “be Sri Lankan buy Sri Lankan” tagline (which has been already established in Sri Lanka). Sri Lanka imports some products which considerably affecting the balance of payment of the country with no real nutrition value. This you can compare with some substitutes produced in our home soil.

So there is a need for experts in the country to:

1. Educate people on the nutritional value of vegetables, fruits, and all food items which are produced in Sri Lanka and see possibilities to grow some import substitutes in the country with properly integrated marketing communication activities (IMC)

2. To have better supply chain management in food in Sri Lanka (especially vegetables and fruits)

And also you need to have proper alignment between activity one and two with a newly established institution.

There should be better alignment between the food habits and demand of people in this country and the supply of food. Even we can propose having a Government institution manage this with different stakeholders and experts from food, supply chain, nutrition, strategy, marketing, finance and economy representing the public and private sectors.

If you really want to concern yourself about the sustainable growth of the country, this is the time for you to have your own reflections and better strategies.

(The writer is a Professor in Management Studies at the Open University of Sri Lanka. You can reach him on nalinabeysekera@gmail.com.)