Harvesting of Cinnamon

The true cinnamon, also called Ceylon cinnamon, is the dried bark of Cinnamomum verum species belongs to the family Lauraceae. It is indig enous to Sri Lanka. However, the word cinnamon also denotes hark, of other species of Cinnamomum such as C. Cassia, C. burmanni, C. loureirii etc. The bark of those trees is inferior in quality to the true cinnamon. Cinnamomum verum is an evergreen tree with spirally arranged, broad laminated dark green leaves having palmate venation. The plant grows to aheightof 10-15m with astern, girthof 30 - 50cm under natural conditions. When coppiced from time to time it could be maintained as bush of 2-2. 5m height with multiple stems arising from its base. The flowers are small. Creamy and inconspicuous developing into dark purple ovoid one seeded berries, about 1.5-2.5cm long.




In Sri Lanka, cinnamon seems to have originated in the central hills where several species of cinnamon occur sporadically in places such as Kandy, Matale, Belihull Oya, Haputale and the Sinharaja forest range. Although cinnamonn cultivation is presently concentrated along the coastal belt stretching along from Negombo to Matara, it has also made inroads to the inland of kalutara, Ambalangoda, Matara and Ratnapura,. The extent under cinnamon in Sri Lanka is 15,500ha. Although, the bulk of cinnamon plantations is about70-80years old the sizeof holdings has been diminishing and only about 5-10% of the plantations are of sizeable extent ranging from 8-10ha

Sri Lanka commands about 60% of the world export market, and exports about 7,000 tonnes of quills and chips per year. Large quantities of cinnamon leaf oil and in increasing quantity of bark oil are being exported. Seychelles is the other country which produces sizeable quantities of cinnamon bark.

This prompts tillering. Normally, the harvesting of the mature sticks is done following the two rainy seasons after the new flush of leaves have hardened. At this time the bark peels off easily.

However, harvesting during other parts of the year can also be done and is being practised by some planters. But under very good management conditions, harvesting could be done more than two times per year. Such a practice coupled with split application of fertilizer can help to increase the yield. While harvesting, the tops and branches are lopped off and left on the ground to be used for leaf oil distillation. The sticks are collected and carried to the peeling shed. Peeling is done with a small round knife having a point on one side for ripping. After scraping the sticks clean of the corky tissues the peeler rubs them with a brass rod to loosen the bark from the hard wood. He then draws a longitudinal slit from end to end and works the knife between the bark and the wood till he has raised it about half inch wide. The stick is then turned and another slit opposite to the former is drawn by working the knife and the bark is detached from the wood in two halves. These barks are connected one inside the other until 106.7cm long quills are made Packing has to be done with great care using the small pieces of bark and chips obtained from the unpeelable bark from twigs to fill the inside of quills. These are then air dried on rope strands indoors till they are fit for handling.

In the above process of quill making, the final job in the handling consists of pressing in the edges of the out side piece wherever necessary and trimming the ends with pair of scissors. Quills are next arranged on rope strands indoors for indoor drying . Sun drying is not recommended as high temperature wraps the quills. A well made cinnamon pipe will be of uniform thickness, colour and quality. The edges should have been neatly joined in a straight line from end to end. The ends should resemble a tight roll of paper. The whole structure should feel firm and compact under thumb pressure. Quills are tied in bundles of 45kg each for easy handling.