Verger Naturals sustainably sources cinnamon and spices from Sri Lanka

Premium Beauty News - Verger Naturals was created ten years ago, with the aim to promote traditional spices and natural extracts from Sri Lanka while championing sustainability and the upliftment of farming communities. What is special about your business?

Nuwan Delage - At Verger sourcing raw materials starts with partnership. It’s a relationship we build with our farmers, one based on trust and understanding. We need to understand their processes, their challenges, their needs. The farmers in turn need to understand what we do to get their produce to the right customers at a fair price. Like most things in nature it is a symbiotic relationship between us and our farmer collectives.

Premium Beauty News - How would you define sustainable sourcing?

Nuwan Delage - There are two key aspects to sourcing sustainably. The first and most commonly understood aspect is, based on managing the impact we have on the planet – the soil, the water table, the climate. It is about farming in a manner that does not strip the earth of resources but rather supports continued abundance. Here it matters how we manage harvesting and processing practices.

The second aspect is the impact we have on people and communities: paying fair prices, supporting farmers in difficult time and also improving their livelihoods. In a time where many people are moving away from farming in search of other opportunities it is important for us to make farming a practical and sustainable choice, where people can grow and develop and live good lives.

Premium Beauty News - What major downstream challenges are you facing?

Nuwan Delage - Supply chain volatility is the biggest challenge that we face! Crop seasons are affected by climate change, and with irregular harvest yields, farming communities face economic challenges affect.

Premium Beauty News - Could you give us an example of an initiative you’ve implemented to address such challenges?

Nuwan Delage - In 2021, a sudden governmental ban on chemical fertilizers, left many farmers in a difficult situation. We allocated a 75 acre plot of land to use waste cinnamon bark from the distillation process as the main raw material to generate 15 tons of compost per month. The compost is provided to our farming communities free of charge. Although the ban on non-organic fertilizer has been lifted, the current economic climate, resulting in high cost of fertilizers, means farmers still grapple with this issue and the compost project is therefore still as needed as it was when we began. This is also a form of regenerative agriculture that we are happy to be developing.

Premium Beauty News - What kind of support would you like from the industry?

Nuwan Delage - It is important for the industry to understand our challenges and move towards providing longer term commitments on prices and volumes. In addition, continued commitment to transparency would be much appreciated.

Premium Beauty News - What does transparency mean at source, is this interlinked to traceability?

Nuwan Delage - Transparency means to heighten the awareness we have within our supply chain, to know what practices are followed by the suppliers and partners upstream and be able to leverage this knowledge to improve the supply chain, farming practices and the benefits for everyone. Traceability without transparency is limited.