Overview

The WFP utilized storage facilities are owned by the Government Food Department under purview of the Food Commissioner and is of acceptable standards. Storage facilities are available island wide.

Buildings and premises are in good and secured conditions and ideal for storage of commodities in different packaging types.  Food commissioner’s closest storage facility to port of Colombo is situated in Orugodawatta within 3 Km from the port. There are three additional central warehouses been allocated for WFP out of Colombo in Veyangoda about 40 Km away from port of Colombo. However, Veyangoda warehouses are about 22 Km drive away from the Colombo International Airport.

WFP utilizes both Orugodawatte and Veyangoda warehouses for storage of commodities, and commodities are dispatched to the regions / districts out of both the above locations. Warehouses are accessible by road and all type of trucks can be used for transportation. All the regional / district warehouse facilities are belonging to the government and managed by the respective District Secretariats.

Port storage is available under Sri Lanka Ports Authority. However, logistically it is not recommended as it is expensive. Intermediate storage at the port is possible. Storage of wheat grain in bulk is possible at Trincomalee flourmill in silos. There is sufficient silo storage available for wheat grain storage.

For more information on storage company contact details, please see the following link 4.6 Storage and Milling Companies Contact List

Commercial Storage

Sri Lanka is fast becoming a regional business hub as many local and foreign businesses enter various commercial fields in the country. However, new businesses face many varied obstacles at the initial stages of their ventures. One of the major challenges they experience is lack of proper storage spaces for their products, raw materials, and for other necessary equipment and related logistics. In this backdrop, warehousing services in Sri Lanka come to their rescue on request at this crucial stage for affordable charges.

In fact, a proper warehouse lays out a strong foundation for any business since the supply chain of that venture totally depends on its warehouse facilities. Businesses must arrange their warehouses in such a way to make it easy to pick up what they need in no time. Therefore, modern-day state of the art warehouses boasts automated system to handle most of their task with qualified system operators. In such warehouses, products and pallets run on automated conveyors. They maintain automated storing systems supported by medium and heavy machineries such as automated guided vehicles.

Furthermore, modern warehouses have automated retrieval systems using robots. According to the given needs, operators can program the system. Moreover, most of warehousing services in Sri Lanka have temperature controlled (cold chain) storage facility. Therefore, they can supply storage facilities for perishable items and heat sensitive products such as various chemicals, healthcare, and consumer liquids. Some small warehouses include automated facilities to store a range of goods horizontally to the height of even 40 meters. To select the stored products, such warehouses have modern systems such as pick-to-voice, pick-to-paper, and pick-to-light automated systems.

https://courier.lk/resources/warehousing-services-in-sri-lanka

Storage Used by Humanitarian Organizations

UNHRD is a network of depots located in Ghana, Italy, UAE, Malaysia, Spain, and Panama that procures, manages, and transports emergency supplies for the humanitarian community. It is a one stop shop for partners, offering free storage, procurement, transport, handling, and technical field expertise. Partners can request services in any region and can coordinate their response efforts, lend, and borrow stock, and access unbranded items.

[1] Warehouse Type: Open storage, container, rub-hall, silo, concrete, other, unspecified

[2] Warehouse Access: Raised-siding, flat

[3] Warehouse condition: Appears intact, appears damaged, under construction/repair

Public Sector Storage

The table below shows the current warehouses utilized by the WFP to store food donations intended for the government:

Cold Chain

Absence of a cold chain management system and limited facilities for value adding activities along logistics corridors and in the regions diminishes opportunities for export expansion. Existing cold storage facilities are insufficient for fisheries products and there are no major cold storage facilities in the country for perishables storage in key locations at the regional level, which leads to high postharvest losses: approximately 30% loss of fresh produce and 60% of export products. Assuring consistent temperature as a product moves through the value chain or during its transportation is a fundamental part of ensuring basic health and safety as well as compliance with international regulations. Without reliable temperature-controlled facilities and appropriate value adding services along logistics corridors, it will be impossible to increase exports for sectors that require special conditions for storage and transportation. High capital expenditure is required to develop these kinds of facilities. They are required in the Northern Province, North Central Province, Eastern Province, Central Province and Southern and Sabaragamuwa regional centres. A proper supply chain study is important to identify volumes and the best locations to set up facilities to collect perishable items for storage and processing. In addition, there is very limited land provided by the Government for lease to develop these facilities (99-year lease model at a discount rate) and no targeted incentives to drive development of such facilities. A public–private partnership or build-operate-transfer (BOT) model is needed. BOI does not have clear direction on the provision of such a support mechanism from the Ministry of Finance (MoF), even though the lack of cold chain facilities is a public utility and health issue.

Mr. Desmond Dias General Manager – Sisilco Cold Rooms

[1] Cold Room Positive, Cold Room Negative, Refrigerator, Freezer,

[2] Compression, Absorption, Solar, Other, unspecified