Revolutionary instant rice from Sri Lankan entrepreneur
Hey presto – ‘Instant Rice’.
Giving meaning to the adage ‘failures are the pillars of success’, a Sri Lankan entrepreneur is aiming to headline the world with a revolutionary ‘instant rice’ product.
Waffle cone in the making
How is it produced? Just boil it for five minutes and a plate of delicious fried rice is ready be it with prawns, cuttlefish, vegetable or fish. It comes in a pack branded as ‘CanMo’.
Young entrepreneur Chathuranga Kariawasam from Pelawatte Road, Nugegoda spoke to the Business Times (BT) seated on one of their ‘Roots’ fresh fruit juice parlours at Nawala Road, Nugegoda and explained the invention and the approach to the world market of ‘CanMo’
In 1993, though successful at the GCE A’ Level the marks were not enough to enter the university, he said. In response to an advertisement by Sri Jayawardenapura University for external degress, he became an external student, is already a graduate in entrepreneurship and hopes to qualify with a Masters Diploma in another two months.
Ineligible for university straight after A’ Levels, he joined Richard Pieris Ltd as a Management Trainee and started researching on preserving fruit salad for six months for export with technical assistance from ITI researchers with Rs. 2.6 million granted by the Sri Lanka Agribusiness Council. When the ITI researchers migrated to Australia half-way through his product development, Mr. Kariawasam struggled for eight years using his own funds but the product failed miserably.
Instant rice being packed
His father, Asoka Kariawasam along with a friend, Rienzie Fernando in 1997 pioneered making fresh fruit juice with the establishment of ‘Roots’. They made juice from the fresh fruit rather than keeping the prepared juice in the refrigerator, a pioneering effort, now with 20 fresh juice outlets and a market leader in this trade segment.
He said that the failed fruit salad preservation project discouraged him but due to the lecturers’ persistence in urging students to innovate, he thought of giving it another try.
Since the family is in the ice cream business too, he got an idea to make waffle ice cream cones that would be cheap and durable.
After eight months of research, he developed a novel waffle ice cream cone that has a 6-month shelf life and is cheap.
Branded as ‘Waffle Boy’, he manufactures 200,000 per month and the product is available in all supermarkets, star-class hotels and reputed outlets.
Last week his company began exporting the cones to Maldives and hopes to export to other countries as well.
The instant rice idea came to him in 2007. When he saw on TV in 2009, soldiers eating noodles in the battlefield on the run he was determined to make it a reality as he thought the soldiers would have preferred rice, if available.
Chathuranga Kariawasam
Research was carried out with technical assistance by Janitha Liyanage, a lecturer in the Sabaragamuwa University and joined by another undergraduate, Ms. H. F. Risna, now a BSc graduate specialised in Food Science and Technology. The trio succeeded with this world class invention.
‘CanMo’ Instant Fried Rice with prawns, fish, vegetable and fish in three different packs targets different consumer segments – one with a bowl that could be used in the microwave oven aimed at the high end consumer and priced at Rs 220; the sachet pack priced at Rs. 100 and another pack aimed at low income segment at Rs. 80. All what one has to do is to open the sachet, put the contents into a pan, either add two cups of boiling water or boil for five minutes and a sumptuous plate of fried rice of ‘your’ choice is on the table to eat The factory is in production at Mirihana .
The product would be available in supermarkets and other reputed outlets.
Some 10,000 packs with bowls are produced per month, and around 100,000 sachet packs are produced per day.
They have tested the market and hope to reach the entire country. His main target however is exports, he said, adding that they need large quantities for export.
The latest fried rice product should be protected by the concerned state agencies and financial backing should also be provided, he said.
Mr. Kariawasam has a dream: “I want to present my case to the government and to the world, I want to be financially stable and recognised. If I am not well protected and backed by finance, it would take a long time to fully realise my dream.”
Mr. Kariawasam could be contacted on waffleboysrilanka@gmail.com.