Organic foods for healthy living
Being a victim of chemical food poisoning in the 1980s prompted him to study the hazards of food poisoning that resulted in forming the Bio Foods (Pvt) Ltd, said its Chairman Dr. Sarath Ranaweera at a media conference held at the Water’s Edge Hotel at Battaramulla last week.
Bio Foods founder Chairman Dr. Sarath Ranaweera (second from left), Otara Gunawardene (brand ambassador), Madusha Ranaweera (Chief Marketing Officer) and Lilanthi Herath (CEO).
He said Bio Foods (Pvt) Ltd has changed the culture of agrochemical-ridden conventional farming by switching over to chemical–free organic crop cultivation during the past 25 years.
“When we started organic crop cultivation in 1993 farmers weren’t aware of such a method and it became a difficult task to convince them on the merits of organic farming.”
Dr. Ranaweera said from the very inception the company had implemented fair trade standards to protect their farmers from price fluctuations and middle man exploitation. “This is one of the many things that differentiate us as leaders in modern sustainable agriculture.”
He said farmers encounter numerous problems when they cannot sell their main produce at a guaranteed price. “There are around 10,000 small farmer families who grow other herbal produce such as spices, etc other than their main crop. We export these products to Europe and to other world markets. There is huge potential in the export market for these organic produce. We cannot export all the healthy foods as Sri Lankans should also have access to these healthy foods. Therefore we decided to launch organic foods in Sri Lanka too.” he said.
Last week Bio Foods (Pvt) Ltd celebrated 25 years having been established in 1993 as a family-owned export business based in Kandy. The company has grown to be one of the leaders in organic and fair trade in agriculture where they export tea, spices and coconut products. The company business model involves them from training and certifying underprivileged farmer groups in many rural parts of Sri Lanka to enable their own certified processing of plants to packing units.
Dr. Ranaweera won the first ever “World’s Fairest Fairtrader Award” in 2014 in Bonn, Germany. Over 80 candidates were among them, recognised for their special efforts or innovations within the global fair trade system. The award was presented by the World Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO) .
Bio Foods (Pvt) Ltd Brand Ambassador Otara Gunawardene said it has become important to know the type of foods that we consume as foods grown with chemicals are harmful to everyone. We should be able to eat our food without chemicals and even without harming animals. She said companies like Bio Foods are important to Sri Lanka to create an awareness to prevent kidney diseases and cancers so that people can live healthy. Bio Foods (Pvt) Ltd, Chief Executive Officer Lilanthi Herath and the Chief Marketing Officer Madusha Ranaweera also spoke.