Financial Times

Lankan-based firm goes for gold at World's biggest flower show
Borneo Exotics (Pvt) Ltd, a company based at Thalawathugoda, has been accepted as an entrant to the May 2005 Chelsea Flower Show in London by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).

Company Managing Director Robert Cantley, in a statement, said to the best of their knowledge this is the first time a Sri Lankan producer has ever got this far in horticulture and even being accepted into the world's greatest and most prestigious flower show.

"We expect that whatever the outcome of our exhibition at Chelsea, that it will help put Sri Lanka on the map for future investors as a friendly and suitable place for horticultural enterprises to set up business," he said thanking officials from the BOI, the Department of Wildlife, the Department of Agriculture, Customs and Excise, the Tea Research Institute and some other private enterprises such as Green Farms for their support.

He said the company was aiming for a gold medal at Chelsea. "This is the greatest accolade a horticultural enterprise can ever achieve and it has taken us over 20 years to get this far," he said adding that “we are now” striving to produce plants of such standard that a gold may be within reach. The Chelsea Flower show attracts nearly 500,000 visitors over a six day period.

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