The usual sacks of vegetables, photo by Adam Cohn
Drove through Fort this evening and saw huge pile of tires. Thought it was for the Colombo Night Races at first, but no, they were burnt. Protest tires. No bodies inside though. Bonus.
The basic issue is that the government is calling for all vegetables to be transported in plastic crates rather than sacks. The issue with the issue is that plastic crates cost at least Rs. 1000 (according to the farmer blogger Serendipity) and sacks cost like nothing. The logic is that crates reduce wastage by like 20-30%, but the rub is that traders need to spend on the crates, can’t pile as much stuff in, and then have to send the crates back.
These issues are workable, but the government’s usual ad hoc policy making has led to what has become a cycle of protests and delays, which seem to be coming to a head now. I think W3 Lanka describes the general policy best: “First implement the law, then call off it due to protest and finally discuss with the stakeholders.”
According to them, the government is digging in and saying the policy is for reals this time (it’s actually I think almost a year old), but traders and farmers are digging in and protesting in Dambulla and Colombo, among other places. The government has, in turn, dug itself in by taking at least 30 vehicles into custody.
What I think is that the government should have either A) shoved this policy through the first time and/or B) come up with a sort of exchange system whereby crates are recirculated (like natural gas containers) and C) offered some sort of subsidy or incentive for converting, perhaps early. Instead we get recurring protests, a short-term spike in vegetable wastage, and no non-humiliating option for either side.
What I suspect this means for me is no green chilis tomorrow besides the shrively ones at the bottom of the crisper. Le sigh.
It will be interesting to find out who gains monetarily from this. Obviously the manufacturer/seller, but maybe there is the usual 10% going to some crooked politico???
Java Jones,
possible, but for some reason I think it may be pure arrogance. We can so we will.
There’s a vegetable shortage in Colombo today, apparently. And there are rumours that the army’s ordered people to use bags instead of crates. This is going to be fun to watch. :P
Crates make sense for soft tomatoes and maybe some fruits, but most veggies have been selectively bred over the years to have pretty thick skin and handle bulk transport without a problem. In American farms, they load potatoes onto tipper trucks. The wastage figure due to transport in sacks sounds like BS to me.
There is some good background on this article published on LBO (if you ignore the political brownie points it seems to be trying to score).
http://www.lbo.lk/fullstory.php?nid=1755694470
Looks like this Harsha dude knows what he is talking about (at least in this instance). I hope the minister looks to solve the issue than pushing through just for the sake of enforcing this law.
Somebody’s obviously imported a shiny bunch of crates they need to utilise quickly.
What’s going on in Sri Lanka? Are they bringing back socialism? Setting minimum rates for hotel rooms, forcing transporters to use plastic crates, forcibly taking over private property are all the actions of a socialist, some might say fascist, government. Government has no business interfering in the affairs of private enterprises. Let the free market decide the best way to allocate resources.
BTW crate title to this blog post!
The government is largely constituted by dicks.
The way they’ve handled this crate issue highlights this fact.
Having said that, I think the crates are a great idea – it will significantly reduce the amount of fruits and veggies damaged or destroyed in transit – think about it – if you’re transporting something fragile, you should try and protect it instead of just throwing them all into a lorry, right? Also, weren’t the crates supposed to be provided free? I guess that’s also a problem – if its given free, people won’t value them and will find a load of other uses for the crates besides its intended use and just come back for more…