Sri Lanka’s palm-sap tappers ride UNESCO boost

AMBEGODA (AFP) — When Sri Lankan mechanic Sarath Ananda left his job in Kuwait to make traditional palm sweets, he never imagined the career switch would bring global acclaim.

Ananda returned home in 2008 and embraced his family’s traditional vocation — tapping sap from the kithul palm, becoming a fifth generation practitioner of a craft now recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The honor has cast a global spotlight on a fragile cottage industry battling labor shortages, rampant adulteration and dwindling sap supplies.

At dawn and sunset, Ananda, 63, climbs towering Caryota urens trees to collect the sweet, milky sap that is boiled into treacle — a caramel-colored syrup with a pleasant aroma that enhances the flavor of desserts.

When boiled longer, it reduces into jaggery, a mineral-rich palm sugar with a lower glycemic index than the commonly available white cane sugar.

But the yield from his five trees — about 200 liters (50 gallons) a day — falls far short of demand for his homemade brand. 

So Ananda has built a network of 55 tappers who supply their harvest to him daily, enabling exports to Australia, Britain, New Zealand and the Middle East.

“I returned home after working in Kuwait for 10 years. Then I took up the family vocation,” he told Agence France-Presse at his village home in Ambegoda, about 100 kilometers south of the capital Colombo.

But he is worried the art of tapping will fade away, with the new generation unlikely to take it up. 

“My son is studying engineering,” he said. “I don’t think he will want to climb trees.” 

His wife, Padma Nandani Thibbotuwa, 61, handles the boiling and stirring.

“The big problem we face is adulterated products — some people add sugar,” she said. “This is because pure kithul is very expensive.”

If the sap is not boiled immediately after collection, it ferments into a potent alcoholic drink known as kithul toddy.

Most kithul-producing households divide labor the same way — husbands collect the sap while the wives process it into sweets.