Sri Lanka to reduce wastage of vegetables during transportation

Sri Lanka Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena says the use of gunny bags and other ad hoc methods to transport vegetables will be banned from the beginning of next year.

The Minister points out that the traditional transport system that uses gunny bags and poly sacks to pack vegetable cause immense wastage. He added that the waste is one of the causes of high price of vegetables.
The Minister says that new methods of packaging will be experimented. The Ministry also hopes to supply 80,000 plastic crates for packing vegetables.
According to the Minister, unproductive methods of transportation cause losses of vegetables worth hundreds of millions of rupees.
However, the vegetable traders say that the use of crates limits the space for loading in trucks and increase transport cost eventually adding to the price.