Where in Sri Lanka do MrCOLOMBO spices grow?

In several growing regions across the island: Badulla and Kandy (black pepper), Jaffna in the north (organic turmeric, organic moringa, organic lemongrass), Ratnapura and Gampaha (Ceylon cinnamon), Matale (cardamom), Kandy (nutmeg, cloves) and Kegalle (vanilla). Each region has its own microclimate and shapes the aroma profile.

How many partner families does MrCOLOMBO work with?

With our smallholder families in Jaffna, in the central region and in the classic Ceylon growing areas of Sri Lanka - organised through local partner cooperatives on site. The relationships are long-term; most have existed for more than five years. Personal inspection on site is a prerequisite for taking on new partner families.

What is direct trade and how does it differ from Fairtrade?

Direct trade means: no intermediaries, no wholesaler, no importer in between - we buy directly from the partner family at fixed terms above the market price. Fairtrade is a certification system with minimum prices; direct trade is a relationship model without a middleman. Both have their merits - we chose direct trade because we control the supply chain completely ourselves.

Are the spices packed in Sri Lanka or in Germany?

Entirely in Sri Lanka - from drying and grinding to the fully labelled final packaging. In Germany only storage in Darmstadt and shipping take place. That keeps the value in the country of origin.

How often does MrCOLOMBO visit the partner families?

At least once a year - usually more often. The visits serve quality control, farm inspection, sampling and personal exchange about harvest quality and planning. Documented in our Sri Lanka travel story.

A journey to northern Sri Lanka

Jaffna
cooks.

A photo journey through the largest market in northern Sri Lanka - with the people who set it up every morning and the pots its ingredients end up in each evening.

A feature by JR-Janathan Rajakumar Reading time 12 min.

To the feature

If you want to understand Sri Lanka, start at the market. Not in the restaurant, not in the temple, not on the beach - at the market. This is where you see how a country eats. This is where everything gets sorted that later ends up in the pots, the temple offerings, the wedding meals, the school lunchboxes.

Jaffna, the largest city in the Tamil north, has its market under a corrugated iron roof. At half past five in the morning the first farmers arrive from the hinterland. By seven the first sacks are open. By ten the hall is so full you can only squeeze sideways through the aisles. This market has been the region's meeting place for over a hundred years. What happens here is not folklore - this is Sri Lanka, every day.

We at MrCOLOMBO do not source our spices from this hall. Our turmeric, our pepper, our Ceylon cinnamon come from partner families in three growing regions with whom we have fixed agreements. But anyone who wants to understand where our spices come from needs to know the world they are embedded in. This feature is our invitation into exactly that world.

Tamil market trader in a purple sari sitting among sacks of dry goods at the weekly market in Jaffna - traditional Tamil market culture in Sri Lanka

Weekly market in Jaffna, stall 14. The trader took over the spot from her mother, who took it over from her mother-in-law. Nothing is written up here - here you bargain.

Women keep the market alive

Three generations, one stall.

At the market in Jaffna the men sell the heavy goods - sack goods, rice, millet, coconuts. But the daily trade in spices, pulses and fresh vegetables is run by the women. Many have sat here since their youth. Some took over their spot from their mother, some from their mother-in-law. Whoever holds the spot passes it on - not out of tradition, but because customers know relationships, not brands.

There are no price tags. There is weighing, tasting, bargaining in Tamil. Whoever buys knows the number of their trader by heart - or knows someone who does. Recommendations travel through families, temple communities, wedding guests. Whoever has bought once at stall 14 comes back. That is not romantic - that is logistics with a face.

What is sold here is regional. Root tubers from the hinterland, dried chilies from the villages around Vavuniya, pulses from the dry zones of Anuradhapura. Three hours' drive north, three hours south - the market draws the harvest together from the whole north of Sri Lanka.

Bridge builder

JR-Janathan shows his home.

JR-Janathan Rajakumar was born in Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka and came to Germany at the age of seven. Raised in Darmstadt, he returns regularly - to the country whose language he speaks and whose cooking he knows from home. At the market in Jaffna he is not there to shop. He is there to look, to talk, to listen.

When he is there, he walks the rows, asks about families, listens to harvest stories. Who had a good harvest this year? Who lost out because the monsoon took too long? Which young woman took over her mother's stall because she can no longer manage? These are not sales talks - this is family keeping each other up to date.

«I am not a tourist here, not a buyer, not an influencer», says JR-Janathan. «I am the one who left and comes back. When I ask questions, I want answers - and people know that.»

Market trader at a covered market stall in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, holding a bundle of fresh vegetables in a bag - Tamil weekly market

At the market in Jaffna · February 2025

What is sold here

The diversity of natural cooking.

Anyone who has never been to a Sri Lankan market has no idea how many kinds of chili, root tubers and pulses a single stall can carry. Things are not sorted by brand or packaging - they are sorted by season, by colour, by their use in the kitchen.

Mounds of sun-dried red chili pods in sacks at a market stall in Jaffna, Sri Lanka - Tamil market diversity — **Sun-dried chilies** · Three weeks of drying on village rooftops, then sorted by pod length and heat level. The longest go into curry, the shorter ones into sambol.

Tamil farmers sorting fresh root tubers on the floor of the market in Jaffna, Sri Lanka - local market work — **Root tubers** · Cassava, sweet potato, yams. The basis for stews, for side dishes, for breakfast kiribath. Whoever buys here cooks tonight.

Market trader in a red shirt sorting fresh root tubers at a market stall in Jaffna, Sri Lanka - handwork at the stall — **Hand sorting** · Every tuber is checked individually for bruises. Damaged ones go to animal feed, flawless ones to the kitchen. This check takes hours and makes the difference.

In Sri Lanka you don't season. You cook. Curry is not a spice - curry is a meal that fetches its ingredients from the market in the morning.

- Saying from the Tamil north

What ends up in the pots

Jaffna's cooking in five sentences.

Rice is always there. With at least three side dishes - that is called «rice and curry». But curry here is not a powder from a tin, it is a method: fry onions in coconut oil, add curry leaves, mustard seeds, then the main ingredient. What was fetched from the market during the day is the star in the evening.

No meal without sambol. Sambol is the red paste of chilies, onions, grated coconut and lime that belongs with every rice dish. Slightly different in every family, every home cook has her own heat level. Whoever is invited to eat in Jaffna does not eat the curry - they eat how she makes sambol.

Pepper is the all-purpose weapon. Over rice, in curry, in stew, sometimes even in the morning tea. Cinnamon, meaning Ceylon cinnamon, is a festive spice - weddings, birthdays, religious celebrations. What grows here is eaten here. Direct sourcing in the truest sense: from the partner family straight into your kitchen.

Whoever cooks in Jaffna does not plan. What is planned is what the season offers. In March there is freshly dug turmeric, in June the first green chilies, in November the dried ones. The market dictates the menu - not the other way round.

This is the world our spices come from. When you open a bag of MrCOLOMBO Ceylon cinnamon, you don't just smell a product - you smell a food culture that has worked exactly like this for centuries.

Tamil market seller in a colourful sari sorting fresh vegetables such as aubergines, long beans and okra at her stall in Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka - traditional market scene at the weekly market

Generations

Whoever still trades at 70 has something to tell.

There are market traders in Jaffna who would never identify with the word «retirement». They are 68, 72, 75 and get up every morning at half past five to set up their sacks. Not because they have to. But because the market is a social place for them, a meeting point, a piece of identity.

These women know the dry seasons of the last three monsoons. They can tell with a finger whether a peppercorn has a core or is hollow. They know which farmer from which village delivers reliably and which does not. If you ask them for a recommendation, you don't get brands - you get names, villages, seasonal tips.

In younger Tamil Sri Lanka much moves to the cities. Colombo, Negombo, the highlands. Whoever stays in Jaffna stays on purpose. And whoever sits here at the market does not sit out of necessity - but because they are needed.

JR-Janathan Rajakumar in conversation with two local Tamil traders at the weekly market in Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka - personal exchange with the people on site, direct link to the supply chain

JR-Janathan in conversation · Jaffna weekly market, early morning

Relationship

Trust weighs more than contracts.

Whoever trades here has known each other for decades. Contracts in the sense of paper do not exist. Contracts in the sense of mutual commitment happen every week - by handshake, by phone, by recommendation. Whoever was unreliable would no longer be here.

That is exactly why MrCOLOMBO does not buy at the market but directly from the partner families. We want to know every supplier, every family. We want the person who plants our turmeric to know that their root ends up in Darmstadt and does not disappear into an anonymous bulk shipment.

But we learned the values for that here. At this market. Where trade without a face does not work. Where a relationship is worth more than a cheap price.

100+ years of market history
5:30 market set-up time
27 MrCOLOMBO partner families

Fresh red and green chili pods on display at the market in Jaffna, Sri Lanka - fresh market produce for making sambol

Fresh red and green chilies · This display is an hour old. By noon it will be sold - made into sambol, chopped into curry, reserved for the wedding cook.

Organic turmeric powder

Sunny yellow from Jaffna - EU organic certified.

Jaffnacooks.

Three generations, one stall.

JR-Janathan shows his home.

The diversity of natural cooking.

Jaffna's cooking in five sentences.

Save 10% on your first order

Whoever still trades at 70 has something to tell.

Trust weighs more than contracts.

Organic turmeric powder

Organic moringa powder

Organic lemongrass, cut

Organic lemongrass powder

Ceylon cinnamon powder

Ceylon cinnamon sticks

Chili flakes

Chili powder, roasted

Chili powder, unroasted

Jackfruit powder

Turmeric powder

Beetroot powder

Black pepper, whole

Black pepper, cracked

Black pepper powder

Sri Lanka curry powder

Bring the taste of Sri Lanka home.

Jaffna
cooks.