‘Source your producers from the Northern Region’, seminar by NCE and ILO Economic Generation through

The National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka (NCE) has collaborated with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), with a view to establish business linkages for export with agricultural producers in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka. 

In this regard an awareness seminar for exporters regarding agricultural products available in the Northern and Eastern Provinces was held on 29 November at the Kingsbury Hotel. The program was held with the participation of Thorbjorn Gaustadsaether the Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Simrin Sighe ILO Country Director for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Ramal Jasinghe the President of NCE, Shiham Marikar the Secretary General of NCE and Nihal Devagiri – Head of the ILO EGLR Project. This seminar was conducted as a part of this project.

The objective of the project is to promote inclusive economic development among the people in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces, creating decent employment opportunities, and long-term sustainable livelihoods. It recognises the important role of the private sector, and especially the export sector to achieve these objectives.

For this purpose, during the last four years, the NCE has led business delegations to the Northern and Eastern Provinces, and has successfully linked exporters with producers through mutually beneficial programs.

The Hatton National Bank PLC was on board at this seminar to promote special SME credit scheme of the bank for exporters. 

More than 40 exporters participated at the program and they were interactive during the session to clarify facts regarding the availability of products from the Northern and Eastern Regions. 

The program commenced with NCE President Ramal Jasinghe welcoming the gathering. In his address he mentioned that the ILO-NCE partnership is creating better livelihoods for people in the Northern and Eastern regions.

Thereafter Secretary General of the Chamber Shiham Marikkar presented an overview of the EGLR project where he indicated that few of the NCE members had already established linkages with the producers in the North.

ILO country Director for Sri Lanka and Maldives Simrin Singh addressing the gathering, stated that Sri Lanka is a positive example as opposed to many other country situations where she has been the Country Director before taking over the responsibility in Sri Lanka. She added that many issues such as child labour, adverse working conditions of labour, etc were not prevalent in Sri Lanka.

Addressing the gathering ILO project coordinator Devagiri shared information on the brief history of the project, and the partnership with NCE since 2011. It was mentioned that many problems prevail in the Northern and Eastern region in regard to post-war development projects, such as issues related to poverty, and the need to creating social harmony. However there exists high quality products that are of exports quality, for example it was mentioned that for high priced fisheries products such as Mud Crabs the farmers lack market access. Therefore it is important to create linkages through national level partners such as the National Chamber of Exporters.

The Ambassador in his address commended the programs that create linkages with farmers in areas that need more economic and livelihood development. Headed there are more than 1,400 families benefitting through such programs, and that generally exporters benefit by having access to high quality produce that could be utilised for further processing. Further it was stated that the processing centres in the food sector has enabled Northern producers to benefit on a large scale. During his visit to Northern and Eastern parts of the country, he had been able to observe that the formation of Farmer Cooperatives has enhanced the capacities of producers for decent job creation, and also increased engagement of women in these regions.  A panel discussion was conducted after the presentations at which the Norwegian Ambassador Thorbjørn Gaustadsæther, ILO Country Director Simrin Singh, ILO, EGLR project Coordinator Devagiri, National Chamber of Exporters President Ramal Jasinghe and HNB Assistant General Manager for Trade and Finance Janath Illangathilake were participants moderated by NCE Secretary General/CEO Shiham Marikkar. 

During this session clarifications were sought as to why the project is limited to the Northern Province. Ramal Jasinghe responded that land suitable for agriculture, and a resilient labour force who are enthusiastic in production existed in the region while the Southern Region has the entrepreneurial skills, to create successful business linkages to tap the resources in these areas. Further this will enable inclusive growth in the economy of Sri Lanka and value addition for exported products could be achieved through the projects. 

Further elaborating the ILO view, it was mentioned that the priority areas for the ILO were the Northern and the Eastern regions of the country, due to marginalisation of the people that has occurred over the years, while these areas are uniquely equipped to create high yields related to agri products. Further since the project model has been fruitful, the same model could be replicated in the other regions of the island, to enhance livelihoods through economic activities. 

The Norwegian Ambassador responding to a question as to whether there is a program to address the issue of the skilled labour shortage in the Northern region stated that there is no program at present. However there are ongoing discussions being on the matter. In regard to a query on Export Finance, Illangathiake of HNB stated said that it is possible to conduct more programs to create awareness among exporters and especially SMEs, regarding the available Export Finance facilities. Clarification was requested as to how the project could be expanded to other sectors in addition to fruits and vegetables and fisheries and whether fair-trade and organic certifications could be provided to producers. Devagiri responded that expansion to other sectors was possible if there is a demand, and there is possibility of providing organic certificates as well. 

In regard to the provision of real time statistics on the available exportable products, Devagiri stated that the accuracy of available statistics was questionable since various sources provide data. Shiham Marikkar added that since accurate data was not available the NCE is in the process of developing details of available produce. A seafood exporter based in Trincomalee stated that problems prevailed regarding quality due to middlemen trading in the Fisheries sector, and wastage of large amounts of fish, and such barriers hinders the potential benefits that could be reaped from the food processing plant. In this regard, it was stated that a project was already being implemented in the Poonerin area to support the building of fisheries cooperatives, and to link them with exporters. It was also mentioned that the Fisheries sector in the East is not as organised as the Northern Fisheries Sector. Shiham added that models used by countries that have strong fisheries export sectors need to be studied, to acquire know-how to promote primary processing, and to create knowledge transfer systems. Following the panel discussion, Iresha Withanage Senior Associate of ‘Fair Trade Sri Lanka’ made a brief presentation on Fair Trade Certification and clarified questions raised by the participants, followed by a presentation by the Event partner HNB, on the SME Credit Scheme that will benefit Sri Lankan Exporters.