{"id":94133,"date":"2019-10-20T14:01:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-20T21:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=94133"},"modified":"2019-10-20T14:01:13","modified_gmt":"2019-10-20T21:01:13","slug":"memories-of-development-the-marketing-department-buying-and-selling-red-onions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/10\/20\/memories-of-development-the-marketing-department-buying-and-selling-red-onions\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories of Development: The Marketing Department buying and selling Red Onions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garvin Karunaratne, former G.A. Matara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Red Onions was a major crop produced in the Jaffna Peninsula. Gerry Stevens the Assistant Commissioner ran round in circles to ensure that the cooperatives bought red onions from producers at the premium price we offered and handed the stocks to our stores where we stored them and dispatched them by rail to all parts of the country. He must have dispatched around thirty or more wagonloads a day during the season. This was easily his major task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I covered the Southern Province. My main task was buying paddy, storing it, issuing paddy for milling and also rice milling. I had the largest rice mill at Ambalantota, a mill that worked 24 hours a day for six days a week.\u00a0 Marketing Red Onions, during the red onion season, was a very minor part of my job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daily five wagon loads of Red Onions were dispatched from Jaffna to Boosa and my Divisional Marketing Officer stationed at Galle was tasked to clear the wagon loads to get them to his stores and sell the Red Onions to dealers at a wholesale price and also ensure that red onions are retailed at the Fair Price Shop we had at Galle.\u00a0 Very often I would come to Galle, do a round of inspections of my paddy store at Boosa and also inspect our Wholesale Red Onion Store and our Fair Price Shop to see that red onions are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had done my round of inspections and that included visiting private dealers at random to check whether they had stocks of red onions. If any dealer did not have red onions I would speak to the owner and inquire why. When visiting private stores my method was to linger with people buying red onions, inquiring for the price. Instead of asking for the price I would rather hear sales being done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I fixed the retail as well as the wholesale prices and I had to ensure that my red onion store had stocks I kept a low margin of some fifteen percent to cover up wastage and handling. That was how the Marketing Department controlled inflation.\u00a0 Inflation as far as sales of products is concerned is caused by the traders keeping a fat margin of profit. The MD ate into that profit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marketing Department had a variety of activities to ensure\nthat traders did not fleece the people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MD had a restaurant at the Kataragama Festival, where every eat was offered at rock bottom prices. The two years I worked in the South included supervising this unit. We had selected the best of staff from all the other units. The\u00a0 MD very unofficially controlled the prices at which other hotels provided food. That MD restaurant was always full of people. The MD also had a bakery in Colombo that produced quality bread and short eats at very cheap rates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IMF dictated to the Government of President Jayawardena that the MD had to be abolished and it was done in around 1979. Since then the sky is the limit for traders to make a fantastic profit. The other day I visited a friend of mine at Pangiriwatta. Almost next to his house a four-story house had come up overnight. I inquired from my friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 He is a vegetable dealer\nin the Colombo market. He is rolling in money. He buys a new car every\nyear.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was not possible when the Marketing Department was functional<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all Assistant Commissioners- some fifteen of us from all corners of the island were summoned in the first week of each month for a Conference.\u00a0 We have to bring with us the profit and loss sheet for every Fair Price Shop and every Store and at Galle, it included the wholesale unit of selling Red Onions. Our Commissioner, BLW Fernando, a chartered accountant would scan each profit and loss sheet. As his eyes moved he would figure out the profit margin we had kept. If any Assistant Commissioner had kept a margin of over fifteen percent one would be hauled over the coals. We had somehow to keep a very low margin, not make a loss, the ideal was to keep to around five to ten percent profit. It was a difficult task, but we had to be careful, otherwise, hell will be let loose<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day I had inspected our\u00a0 Fair Price Shop and the Red Onion Store at Galle visited at random some private traders and was satisfied that red onions were being sold at a reasonable rate and available. I got back to Ambalantota by night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning as I went to my office at Ambalantota a postal peon brought a telegram. Those were the days when phones never worked. From my office to get a phone call one had to first phone the postmaster and request a phone call giving the number I wish to call. I had to wait long. It was simpler to send a telegram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The telegram stated. Member of Parliament Dahanayake reports shortages of red onions in Galle. Inspect at the report at once.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I saw stars. I hooked to my Peugeot 203, a fast car, and took off,\u00a0 back to Galle. I went to our stores, wholesale as well as retail and found plenty of red onions and I visited many private dealers and saw them retailing red onions. I had been there the earlier day too. I was very angry. Running all over the Southern Province like a mad dog my task was to ensure that producers could hand over their produce at the premium prices we offered without difficulty- that was paddy. Again as far as Red Onions was concerned during the Red Onion season I had to see that Red Onions were available to people at a reasonably low price. My empire looked shattered.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, I decided to meet Mr. Dahanayake. I knew him well, meeting him at Conferences and fairly closely associating him. It was dusk and I thought I could catch him at his residence. I went there but he was not in. I had to meet him somehow and I waited patiently. The telegram had almost killed the reputation I had built up in the Department. It was a long wait. He turned up at around ten o clock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin. What brings you here at this time?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was quick to show him the telegram,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir, this is not true. I was in Galle yesterday and Red Onions were readily available at our shops, at our wholesale unit as well as with private traders. I have gone round today too and have found that there has not been a shortage of red onions.\u00a0 Why have you sent this telegram? You should have contacted me if you find a problem. He did not reply for a full five minutes. I wondered why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know Garvin one fellow came and said that there is a shortage\nof red onions in Galle and to satisfy him \nI sent a telegram to the Minister. You know we have to keep everyone\nhappy otherwise I will not get their vote at the next elections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But my Commissioner will have a poor opinion of my work and will\nconclude that I am inefficient.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Leave that to me. I will be meeting the Minister tomorrow\nand will tell him that everything is perfect in Galle as far as the Marketing\nDepartment is concerned, as has always been.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was how politics work with us officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Days passed by and the Head Office did not get in touch with me. Evidently Mr. Dahanayake had kept to his word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That Marketing Department with its Vegetable and Fruit Purchasing Scheme, which effectively controlled inflation is no more. The Jayawardena Government abolished it on the advice of the IMF and traders today make hay, while the consumers suffer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food for thought. That is the only method of controlling inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since leaving the Administrative Service after serving for eighteen long years I have studied and lived in five countries and have also traveled far and wide, but have never come across any country that has a Vegetable and Fruit Purchasing Scheme like what we had in the Marketing Department. It was built up by administrators R.H.Basset and BLW Fernando and fine-tuned to serve the country.\u00a0 It provided fair prices, above than what the traders offered to the producers all over the island, provided produce at cheap rates to consumers and also made Sri Lanka self-sufficient in vegetables and fruit preparations. Today producers do not produce as they are not assured of a reasonable price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin Karunaratne, former G.A. Matara<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18\/10\/2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author of:
How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development(kindle\/Godages, 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Garvin Karunaratne, former G.A. Matara Red Onions was a major crop produced in the Jaffna Peninsula. Gerry Stevens the Assistant Commissioner ran round in circles to ensure that the cooperatives bought red onions from producers at the premium price we offered and handed the stocks to our stores where we stored them and dispatched them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-garvin-karunaratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}