Financial Times

Cargills, the largest supermarket chain, is investing in Sri Lanka’s biggest meat processing factory at an investment of Rs 300 million at Ja-ela due to open in a few months.

It would be both for domestic consumption plus export, Ranjit Page, Cargills Deputy Chairman said.

The company, which has developed good relations with the rural community because of its support to farmers, is also launching a novel certificate course to help migrant workers get better jobs and bigger salaries overseas.

“We want those seeking jobs overseas to get a qualification which would then enable them to get better paying jobs in the Middle East and Asia,” Page told 4,000-odd employees of the company on Wednesday. During the group’s annual employees day – which saw the group’s Food City chain of more than 100 supermarkets across Sri Lanka being closed for the day-, he said the new institution in collaboration with a foreign partner will open soon in Colombo and offer would-be migrant workers the chance to obtain a certificate after a nine-month diploma course in subjects like cookery, housekeeping and other skills. “Armed with a diploma, they can get better jobs and send back more money – the individual benefits and the country benefits,” he said adding that the course fees would be nominal and is more a service to the community.