{"id":95811,"date":"2019-11-29T18:21:58","date_gmt":"2019-11-30T01:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=95811"},"modified":"2019-11-29T18:23:55","modified_gmt":"2019-11-30T01:23:55","slug":"a-perfume-making-industry-at-anuradhapura-and-kandy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/11\/29\/a-perfume-making-industry-at-anuradhapura-and-kandy\/","title":{"rendered":"A Perfume Making Industry at Anuradhapura and Kandy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

It is an opportune moment to highlight the fact that Sri Lanka can\ndo better by having its own industries, instead of depending on imports. We\nhave to create employment for our youth and also save foreign exchange by\nmaking things we import. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have many a time, while offering flowers at Ruwanweliseya, felt\nthat the flowers offered can be turned into perfumes.  I have trailed\nbehind lorryloads of flowers in Southern France taking flowers to their\ndistilleries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I enclose a paper I wrote on a perfume industry for Sri Lanka. I wrote this after I came across a small scale distillery at Corris in Wales. Today it is with great difficulty that we dispose of the flowers at the places of worship in Anuradhapura and Kandy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is something that can be done within a month or two,\u00a0 considering the speed with which I worked as the Government Agent at Matara in establishing the Boatyard at Matara done within three months and the Crayon Factory at Morawaka done in three and a half months- of which it took three months to find the recipe to make crayons.\u00a0 A Government Agent is a petty official compared to the powers of a Ministry Secretary. If a Ministry Secretary gets going on establishing industries he can be faster than a Government Agent who has little resources and men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I enclose my Paper on a Perfume Industry in the hope that our leaders in our new Government will have a read of it and will consider a move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin Karunaratne<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin Karunaratne<\/p>\n\n\n\n

former G.A. Matara 29\/11\/2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building up Our Industries\nand Creating Employment-  Perfume Making<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

By Garvin Karunaratne<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On my recent travel to Snowdonia in Wales, I happened to visit the\nCorris Industrial Unit.  What was most\ninteresting was a Mini Distillery using many ingredients, including an array of\nspices, turning out special alcoholic drinks <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I kept wondering  what I\ncould have done if I had known this mini Distillery equipment when I was the\nGovernment Agent at Matara, in 1971, \nwhen we were charged with creating employment for our youth.  Those were the days of the Divisional\nDevelopment Councils Programme for which Dr N.M.Perera, the Minister for\nFinance had high hopes of developing employment for the youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once I was traveling in  North\nIndia and I was charged with the task of buying some perfumes from Sugandhika\nin Lucknow. From Lucknow we were due to proceed to Sravasti on pilgrimage and I\ntold our driver to take us to Sugandhika. It was a small sales outlet selling a\nspecial variety of perfumes, doted on by Indian damsels. What was most\ninteresting was that the perfumes were all made in India itself. After buying\nsome perfumes, I approached the staff and requested that I may be allowed to\nsee their distillery- where the flowers will be distilled into perfumes. Out\ncame an answer that defied me. Theirs was a mini distillery, portable which was\ntaken to the places where flowers were available and at that time the flowers\nwere not in bloom. India has developed its perfume making industries on a grand\nscale. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Corris in Machynlleth, \nin Wales, I saw the two mini Distillery machines functioning in one\nlarge room. Of course they were not making perfumes which would have required\nmore space. But that distillation equipment could have been utilized to make\nperfumes. It is called the DYFI Distillery, led by Pete Cameron\n(dyfidistillery.com- telephone 01654761551.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I quote from a Report I wrote for the Chief Minister of the\nCentral Province, Hon Mr P.C.Imbulana back in 1993, A Programme for Self\nEmployment Creation & Poverty Alleviation in the Central Province of Sri\nLanka\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Perfume making Industry can only be established in the Central\nProvince  as this is the ideal climate\narea for planting flowers. In my stay of an year at Nuwara Eliya I got a good\nincome from flowers that grew wild in my garden. After an identification of\nsmall scale machinery and a study of its feasibility the plans drawn for local\nproduction can also include flowers  to\nbe processed into perfumes. This can be established immediately  with the flowers offered at Dalada Maligawa\u201d(\nFrom  How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka\nand  Alternative programs of Success,\n(Godages). My Report was accepted by the Chief Minister who immediately\ncommenced implementing it at two Divisional Secretary areas, but the Programme\nwas shelved with the United National Party losing the General Election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My find of the machinery for a small scale distillery at Corris in\nWales is significant and holds a great deal of hope to establish a perfume\nindustry in Sri Lanka. If I had known of this machinery when I was the\nGovernment Agent at Matara I would have commenced a perfume making industry\nbased on the flowers offered at the Matara Bodhi . I could  have found employment for easily twenty\nyouths. The plan is extremely feasible and I would urge the Government to take\nimmediate steps to get going with establishing \nperfume industries.  in Kandy,\nwith the flowers offered at the Dalada Maligawa (can easily find employment for\nfifty or more), at Anuradhapura with flowers offered at Sri Maba Bodhiya and\nRuwanveliueya-( this can find employment for thirty or more).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the perfumes are made the second step will be to encourage\npeople to plant flowers and for a collection arrangement to be made. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On my world wide travel since leaving the Administrative Service\nin 1973 I have trailed behind lorry loads of sugar cane and manioc  in India and Thailand, lorry loads of flowers\nin Southern France.  Flowers are\ncollected and transported to perfume making factories. France has developed a\nmassive perfume making industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It beats me why we cannot establish a perfume making industry with\nthe flowers offered at various temples. It was just the other day that a Pichha\nmal ceremony was done at the Sri Maha Bodhiya at Anuradhapura.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often one hears that people are caught trying to take away\nSandlewood and Walapatta from Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It needs to be emphatically stated that a perfume making industry cannot be established in a piecemeal manner, with a stray perfume-making unit being established. There is an essential infrastructure necessary. Firstly the Government must seriously take steps to curtail the import of perfumes by charging a high tax on all imports but this has to be done after good quality perfumes are made locally. If Sugandhika can establish a perfume industry in Lucknow without a permanent distillery, working on a makeshift temporary factory and develop a worldwide trade we can easily achieve it at two places, in Kandy and Anuradhapura because flowers are available in plenty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, the Government must establish a unit to attend to research and guide the factories that make perfumes in the Districts. My mind travels back to my days when I served in Kegalla in 1968 and 1969 and Matara in 1971 and 1973. The Government Agent was held in charge of the Powerlooms in the area and if I remember right there were five Powerlooms in each District and this offered employment to hundreds of youths, This was possible because the Small Industries Department had a Research and Helping Unit at Velona, at Moratuwa to provide the necessary expertise to the Powerlooms all over the island. With one masterstroke, the IMF dictate of making us follow the Structural Adjustment Programme in 1977 abolished all public sector efforts at employment creation. And with that one decision out went Velona and our Powerlooms. And sad to say with that a country that was self-sufficient with fabric and textile manufacture became a  country that imported all textiles. No one, then realized that the IMF was playing the sinister role of making all our Third World Countries indebted so that the countries to which we are indebted can call the shots and dictate to us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making perfumes is a far easier industry than the Crayon Factory that we established in Deniyaya in 1971. We did not know how to make crayons, but the craze in me to establish a manufacturing industry from scratch made me direct the Planning staff to conduct experiments. This commenced initially in my Residency and when we required sophisticated equipment we took over the science laboratory at Rahula College from around six P.M. to midnight when our scientists, the Planning Officer in the katcheri, Vetus Fernando, aided by the science teachers at Rahula, did a myriad of experiments for close upon two months till we finalized the art of making crayons. It was easily comparable in quality to Crayola Crayons. The only difference was that each crayon was handmade, like most industries in China. The Minister of Industries Mr. Subasinghe was surprised when I showed him a crayon and readily agreed to preside over the sales commencing the ceremony.  Mr. T.B.Illangaratne the Minister for Trade too was mesmerized by its quality and authorized an allocation of foreign exchange to enable the industry to import essential colouring. He gave that allocation from the funds earmarked for the import of crayons. He had the capacity to understand that  our making crayons meant that we can immediately reduce imports- saving valuable foreign exchange.  It was a great industry run by the Morawaka Cooperatives under the leadership of Sumanapala Dahanayake, the Member of Parliament who was also the President of the Cooperative Union. This Crayon Industry became the flagship industry of the Divisional Development Councils Programme and the crayons were sold islandwide till 1977, the day when the IMF took control of our country and dictated us to abolish national planning, stop all public sector run industries, abolish the infrastructure already established for development, allow all imports and allow the free use of foreign exchange and dictated us to live on loans, which has paved the path for our country to become indebted.  Making the Third World countries indebted was the method by which the Third World countries were subjugated. This is the sad story unfolded in my book: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The history of establishing the Crayon Industry has been highlighted to show the difficulty of establishing an industry. The other day I was searching to buy a step ladder at Nawala and found that we make only a small percentage of step ladders. The rest is imported from Thailand and China. A country that cannot make its own step ladders can never establish its own perfume industry. At times I think I am wasting my time writing these ideas of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we could have successfully established the Crayon Industry I do\nnot see how we can go wrong with establishing a perfume making industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We only need some foreign exchange to pay for the mini distillery\nequipment, which can easily be recouped from the sales that will be generated\nwithin the very first year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaving development in the hands of the Private Sector, the recommendation of the IMF means that we will never develop our industries.  The Private Sector’s aim is to make a fast buck like venturing on establishing Supermarkets. It is the public sector that has to take on the difficult task of establishing an import substitution type of industries. Let this fact be engrained into the thinking of our leaders. It is my finding that the aim of the IMF is not the development of our countries. Instead, their task is to restructure our economies to contribute to the economies of the developed countries. It is our Third World economies that run the Developed Economies by sending our foreign exchange to them in various forms like imports, funds for university education- many Universities in the UK depend on the funds charged from foreign students.  Most of our experts do not have the capacity to understand how the IMF  ruined our economies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me hope that the ideas in this paper will be read by people of worth, those who have the authority to do something to build up our lost industries and create employment for our own youth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin Karunaratne<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Government Agent, Matara District<\/p>\n\n\n\n

27 th August 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne It is an opportune moment to highlight the fact that Sri Lanka can do better by having its own industries, instead of depending on imports. We have to create employment for our youth and also save foreign exchange by making things we import.  I have many a time, while offering flowers at […]<\/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-95811","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\/95811","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=95811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95811\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}