Financial Times

A new agriculture exhibition is being launched in August in a bid to coordinate and strengthen agribusiness while creating a platform for leading technology and service providers to showcase the latest products and trends.

Ag-Biz, the agriculture exhibition, will be held on August 25-27 and provide the farming community an opportunity to find partners among the private sector in the areas of knowledge, technology, information, marketing, finance and input supply.

“Ag-Biz will help the local agriculture businesses to be more competitive to face global competition and will cover areas such as agriculture, poultry and livestock, floriculture and many more segments,” said Mario de Alwis, Chairman, National Agri Business Council.

He said that the agriculture sector is a main contributor to the Sri Lankan economy with, poultry and livestock contributing over Rs 400 billion annually. “The private sector driving Sri Lanka’s agri-business and Ag-Biz is all about informing Sri Lanka about the private sector’s contribution to agriculture,” he said, adding that 60 percent of Sri Lanka's citizens are directly or indirectly on a full time or part time basis involved in some form of agribusiness related activities.

“While the traditional products such as tea, rubber, coconut and spices are top earners non traditional products such as fruits and vegetables, foliage, cut flowers and processed foods are also becoming important to Sri Lanka's agri-economy.
With the state focusing on revitalizing the rural economy agri-business will be the country’s main focus with the private sector playing a major role as an investor and marketer,” De Alwis explained.

“With changes in technology and other developments taking place around the world, Sri Lankan agriculture needs to be updated to face the global competition,” he said, adding that the exhibition will also showcase the growing importance of the private sector in driving the rural economy and working as a development partner with the state and as a facilitator, technology supplier and marketer to the rural community.

De Alwis said that Ag-Biz, organised by the National Agri Business Council, will provide global technology and service providers with an opportunity to find local partners to represent their interests in Sri Lanka.

He said that in order to provide awareness to the urban consumer on the importance of supporting local agribusiness with their patronage the exhibition will have three categories which include input supply, product categories and services.