Since early 1990s, Sri Lanka has been gaining ground progressively in plant tissue culture (PTC) sector especially with the state-of-the-art technology [1]. A wide range of plants are mass propagated through PTC by both public and private institutes and organizations for both domestic and overseas markets. Currently, Sri Lanka’s TC plant exports depend on some specific popular varieties. Limitations in the product assortment is identified as a major barrier in expanding the export-oriented floriculture sector as well [2].

The beginning of PTC research in Sri Lanka is traced back to the early 1970s, initiated by the researchers of crop research institutes who were trained abroad in this relatively latest field at that time. Until early 1980s, research was mainly confined to crop research institutes and focused mainly on developing PTC propagation protocols. The Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI) of the Department of Agriculture (DoA), the Department of Export Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Peradeniya and most crop research institutes were equipped with PTC facilities and extensive research was undertaken during early 1980s. The Department of National Botanic Gardens was the first institution to establish a micro propagation laboratory in Sri Lanka [3]. The first commercial tissue culture laboratory was established by the Ceylon Tobacco Company during early 1980s for mass propagation of orchid plants and other crops. Since 1990s the commercial production of TC plants started making a rapid progress for plants having a high commercial value such as strawberries orchids, anthurium, foliage plants, etc. [4]. The techniques used in commercial production of plants have been optimized for high proliferation rates with lesser variations.

The export profile of TC plants indicates the need for market expansion, especially to the Middle East, Europe, Japan and Singapore. In order to reach these markets some major constraints in production must be addressed. Among these constraints, the non-availability of quality planting material in sufficient quantities to produce export grade products and high cost of production and export are important factors to be addressed. The under-exploited market and untapped potential for exports are mainly attributed to the non-availability of adequate quantities of the desired variety of export grades and also the relatively high costs. Although a few commercial enterprises operate on large scale exports, due to the limited capacity majority of exporters depend on the products from small-scale producers, middle-collectors, and agents. Hence, there is a high chance in product quality variations. Further, majority of small producers are not commercially oriented for an export market due to the lack of high-level on-site technology, credit facilities and knowledge on marketing strategies and thus, there is a high need of technology transfer, input supply and introducing marketing linkages to increase non-traditional agricultural exports.

This study has been conducted with the objective to document the current status, challenges and opportunities in order to explore the facilities, practices and potential of commercial production of quality planting material that will determine the prospects for improved commercial production of TC plants. Moreover, lack of information on PTC sector in Sri Lanka is a huge drawback for the improvement and development of this sector, therefore, the information gathered through this study would be highly useful for the policy makers in decision making with regard to a successful PTC related income generation procedure.

Analysis of data gathered from the thought-provoking interviews, revealed 06 major challenges experienced by business owners. During the last 05 years, when coping up with the COVID pandemic and financial crisis that the country has been going through, the PTC industry faced many constraints and challenges. Even though the industry is passing 50 years since its establishment in Sri Lanka in 1970, still the industry is observed and experienced with certain drawbacks in key areas of its development due to the challenges described below.

Methodology of the study is mainly based on information retrieval from published sources, and websites, conducting interviews with persons engaged in TC work in public and private sectors and obtaining feedback through a structured questionnaire. The study was conducted during December, 2022 to April 2023. Data were collected from 10 PTC growers (Table 2) from private sector establishments situated in 09 districts (Colombo, Kegalle, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Gampaha, Kalutara, Badulla, Kurunegala and Matara) and the samples were selected randomly. Information on government institutes engaged in PTC research and production were collected from respective websites and published literature. Information on constraints such as finance, land, technology, planting materials, institutional supports and other factors for qualitative analysis were collected through direct and open-ended questionnaires and interviews.

Considering the emergence of saturation of themes and aspects, the number of interviews conducted was decided as per Saunders et al., 2017 [5]. The sampling was done purposively; eight to ten is recommended as an appropriate number of participants [6] and opportunism and convenience were contributing factors in choosing the purposive sample for this study [22]. As Creswell & Creswell (2018) reported participants’ engagement and willingness to share their information and experiences during the PTC related operations and management were obtained [7]. Accordingly, ten in-depth interviews were conducted representing ten PTC businesses. Three in-depth interviews with policymakers were conducted to triangulate our data and findings (Table 1). Adhering to the country’s current transportation issues, online video conferencing application (Zoom) was used as the interview platform. Since the commercial growers and the policy makers preferred not to expose their identities, they have been coded for convenience and to respect their privacy.

Interviews were conducted by directing questions of open-ended nature and used a semi-structured protocol. The reliability of the study was guaranteed and protected objectivity when developing the protocol [8]. The protocols were developed allowing the participants to tell their stories on PTC business and in-depth discussions were conducted on firms’ performance during operations, challenges, coping strategies (internal and external) and lessons learned.

According to the Constructivist Grounded Theory Approach (CGTM), the given overarching research aims were achieved [9]. CGTM, a research method that focuses on generating new theories through inductive analysis of the data gathered from participants rather than from pre-existing theories. This helps to maintain an active interaction with the research participants enabling interpretation of participants’ views and opinions meaningfully. The study reviewed existing literature to understand strategies used by businesses during their operations. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim to obtain the data for the analysis. The analysis of data and information was initiated with reading and re-reading of the transcribed interview to gain an appreciation and familiarize the situations followed by a free textual analysis which was performed to highlight the potential significant points. The highlighted points were then categorized to form common clusters of meaning. The holistic reflective analysis of these categories led to the emergence of themes and sub themes [10] that appeared to be salient to a particular interview (intra-case themes) which was followed by a meta-level analysis across the interviewees (inter-case themes). The analytical findings include direct quotations from the empirical material generated from the interviews to enable the reader to obtain a detailed view of the participants’ voices. The output of the survey and other relevant information are summarized in the results and discussion section.

Our findings mainly pointed to the fact that this industry do not have a methodical approach to manage any crisis situation. An environment that is based on cohesion, flexibility, communication, collaboration and government support needs to be established to deal with business issues. However, Mokhbar et al. (2017) indicated that businesses mostly fail at the initiation due to the lack of capability to plan its progression and transitioning phase of the business [21]. Each component of the business need to be carefully planned and updated. Otherwise the chances of collapsing the business are high which will drastically affect the stakeholders such as employees, suppliers, creditors and so on and create a public scandal. Thus, in a dynamic environment, strategic planning needs to be oriented to the long-term sustainability performance, analyze all investments and risk associated and focus on capital preservation and short-term drive actions. All these notes mean that PTC businesses should be evaluated to understand the future growth predictions, and it should be executed through a professional risk assessment and evaluation authority. Thus, government investigations need to protect PTC businesses to maintain continuous foreign exchange earnings and to protect employees’ social wellbeing. The proper international channels need to be developed for PTC producers and incentive schemes to be developed to improve the available PTC plant producers’ laboratories. Financial assistance already given through the agriculture modernization project has only granted assistance to a limited number of PTC producers. Continuous monitoring of such assisted facilities need to be conducted for long term sustainability of the establishments. Land has been identified as a main requirement for expansion of production. Mother stocks maintenance, plant house and warehouse facilities, etc. puts a heavy demand on land. Being a small country the land is a restricted resource. Introducing other alternatives such as vertical gardening, hydroponics/aeroponics, etc. may lessen the demand for land, yet with a further increase in the capital investment. Also, a chain of suppliers can be established by large scale companies by subcontracting certain components of production, creating more opportunities for economic growth. Careful monitoring of the quality of such subcontractors need to be established to prevent any market failures. Further, Sri Lanka owns a high genetic diversity of food crops and ornamental plant varieties where most of the species fall under underutilized crops. Developing an export-oriented PTC sector with regular inputs of new plant varieties and innovative products targeting international market is very critical and important to bring an additional income for small growers and foreign exchange to the country.