Connecting organic communities

• Digitising local enterprises within the organic agriculture sector of Sri Lanka

The ‘Support to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Organic Agriculture Sector in Sri Lanka’ program is hosting 15 stalls within the ‘Connecting Organic Communities’ pavilion at Pro-Food Pro-Pack 2022; Sri Lanka’s only comprehensive food, agriculture and packaging exhibition. 

The move is in recognition of the potential of local entrepreneurs as a valuable contributor to the global organic agriculture marketplace. 

The pavilion will be located at Hall-E and is open to the public from 18 to 20 November, from 10 a.m. onwards. The pavilion is made possible by the ongoing Multi-donor Action between the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in partnership with Good Market Sri Lanka.

Owing to their strong links to the local organic community, partnering with Lanka Good Market (Guarantee) Ltd. has enabled the program to offer a platform for farmer communities to share their stories and lessons-learned, offering a valuable insider’s perspective into the organic agriculture sector in Sri Lanka. The participants of the stall represent a variety of entities within the value chain, ranging from farmer groups to producers to entrepreneurs. Under the theme of ‘Linking Sri Lankan Products to the World’, the pavilion focuses on how digital tools and digitisation will connect Sri Lankan producers to global markets and enable local entrepreneurs to keep up with global demands, such as traceability of process chains. Visitors will have the opportunity to test out digital tools at the stall, such as Tracified (product value-chain traceability system) and the iFarm app (weather-based insurance app) by Sanasa Insurance.

The pavilion will host the following companies: Wild Collection, Kimbula Kitul, Ranketha, Pasanka, Nirodha, Parabowa, Manchiee De Coco, Bee Green, Peace Wind, Amiron Farm, Coco House, MayaCert, Tracified, Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) and iFarm by Sanasa. Both Good Market and GIZ Sri Lanka have worked closely with the participants: offering development support across varying parts of the organic value chain.

The pavilion will feature vendors specialising in a variety of areas (spices, rice, organic teas), as well as farmers who work in organic food production. Visitors are invited to directly engage with farmer communities and obtain a grass-root level perspective about the industry. Additionally, the pavilion will host live-cooking sessions throughout the exhibition period, serving a wide menu of fusion dishes with local organic ingredients, sourced by the participating vendors.