Jan 22 2021

Ground spices are extensively used in all types of curried dishes in Sri Lanka and abroad. Although spices are traded mainly in an unprocessed form, a small yet significant quantity enters international trade as spice powders. Curry powder is the foremost of those blends or mixes and sometimes consists of 20 or more spices designed to add the characteristic flavour of a Sri Lankan curry, which is appreciated all over the world.

Apart from the super markets, processed spice powder instead of making instant spices for curry is becoming popular in the domestic/rural market also. Hence the demand for unadulterated spices and curry powder in attractive packaging is fast emerging.

Demand for processed spices is directly linked with its consumption and growing as well in Sri Lanka coming years with current provisions of farming instead of importing whole spices. Availability of raw materials is an advantage of implemented this industry through entrepreneur development. The processing of spice in Sri Lanka is becoming vitally important and demand for spice products is high. The different variety of spices is used to produce many food items and there is a good export market to send local process and non-processed spices to many countries. Then of course it is very important to produce quality spice in good taste, odor, color and proper preservative condition that may lead to popularize the spice processing market among the small, medium and large entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka to win the local market as well as the export market as income generating business. There is a deficiency in technological knowhow that should catered. Objectives: To train in island wide area on spice processing thereby small / medium entrepreneurs, farmers and unemployed youth in the project area are made awareness on selecting appropriate agro-processing machineries, packaging technologies in order to begin agro processing industries to increase their income levels through value addition. Key Activities: 1) Selection of farmers/organizations and conducting training programmes on spice processing in terms of technical, maintenance and management 2) Preparation of required equipment, machineries (grinding machines and packaging equipment) and providing financial support for storage development 3) Distribution of required equipment, machineries and financial support (at a subsidized rate of 50%) 4) Technical support for installation of machinery 5) Post Evaluation