Algeria’s richest man steps in to revive Sri Lanka’s sugar industry
View(s):By Bandula Sirimanna
Issad Rebrab
Algerian firm Cevital, one of the biggest sugar refiners in North Africa with a project plan to revive sugar production in Sri Lanka, is ready to make the first investments of its kind in more than half a century in Sri Lanka.
Algerian billionaire Issad Rebrab, founder of Cevital told Business Times, that he is ready to invest more than Euro 150 million to resurrect the sugar industry in Sri Lanka by building a sugar refinery in the Southern Province.
Some 56 years ago in the 1960s the Czech Government was involved in a similar manner to construct the Hingurana sugar manufacturing factory located in the Galoya valley and it was one of the largest sugar factories to be built using modern machinery in the region at that time.
Cevital’s investment will be the first large-scale foreign investment after the Czech Government’s efforts to revive the industry in 1960s, Finance Ministry sources said.
The policy changes made by the new government will encourage overseas investors to develop the industry to meet the minimum annual consumption of sugar in Sri Lanka with attractive incentives offered to the investors.
He noted that his company Cevital seeks government approval to reverse the country’s sugar industry’s decline within two years by producing the local requirement of 1 million tons per annum thus saving the much needed foreign exchange for Sri Lanka.
The annual per capita consumption of sugar in Sri Lanka is around 30 kg and the total annual requirement of sugar in the country is around 1 million tons. The country only produces 80,000 tonnes and imports the balance 920,000, spending over Rs. 60 billion to meet the country’s requirement.