Cargills steps forward to purchase bumper tomato harvest, ensures farmer sustainability

*  Timely intervention prevents farmers from dumping their crop on open fields

*  Purchased over 30 metric tons of surplus tomato on April 26

*  The deal favourable for farmers is akin to a forward commodity pricing arrangement

*  Surplus tomato will be processed to manufacture KIST tomato sauce

by Sanath Nanayakkare

KIST food brand operated by Cargills Ceylon PLC, has stepped forward to help out farmers with their bumper tomato harvest. The move facilitates the farmers to sell their produce to the company five-fold the price they can obtain elsewhere as if in a forward commodity pricing arrangement.

At a time the farmers are compelled to sell their bumper tomato harvest for as low as Rs.10 a kilo, Cargills has entered into agreements with the farmers to buy it at Rs. 50 a kilo with the objective of ensuring farmer sustainability.

Cargills KIST purchased over 30 metric tons of surplus tomato on April 26 from local farmers in Gageyaya (Monaragala district), Welimada (Badulla district), and Wangiyakumbura (Badulla district). By doing so, the company mitigated the significant risk these farmers faced to discard a substantial portion of their harvest.

The surplus tomato will be processed to manufacture KIST tomato sauce, at the company’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Katana. It is the only Sri Lankan facility with aseptic processing capabilities which can convert and preserve fresh local tomato at highest quality standards, to use for tomato sauce production.

A farmer brings his harvest to check the box weight

This initiative underscores the company’s steadfast commitment to support the local farming community, with which it has had direct engagement for the last 25 years. By providing a consistent market for the farming community, the company is able to drive income to the rural economy and support livelihoods.

Cargills has made significant investments over the years to reduce post-harvest losses in the agriculture value chain in Sri Lanka.

The media had the opportunity to witness this initiative first-hand at Jeewangama, Thanamalwila on April 26. The distraught farmers began to flash a smile as they saw Cargills trucks were coming to their farms to purchase their bumper tomato harvest.

Farmer Malini chooses the best tomatoes to pick on her farm
Pix by Sanath Nanayakkare

Speaking to The Island, female farmer Malini said that tomato harvest has gone up substantially these days and the general market is not able to absorb the volumes they produce.

“As a result, the wholesale buyers of fresh vegetables in the market offer us only Rs. 10 for a kilogram of tomato. Tomato being a perishable produce, they know that we can’t wait for good selling conditions. Fortunately, Cargills has come to our rescue again. As you may recall from 2018, Cargills reached out to us to help out with bumper pumpkin harvest. We feel secure in our longstanding partnership with Cargills. The company has the capacity to use this tomato yield to make sauce, and we are assured that Cargills will buy any amount of tomato that will be harvested in the coming weeks at Rs. 50 a kilo. This price is five times higher than the price we can get elsewhere. Also, I must say that Cargills doesn’t differentiate the price depending on the size of tomato. If we go to other vendors, they sort the tomato into three size categories and quote different prices. Cargills doesn’t do that. They give us the agreed price regardless of the size of tomato. This is a great relief to us at this difficult time. One can imagine the pathetic condition of the post-harvest food loss if not for Cargills’ timely intervention,” she said.