Expolanka Ltd, a subsidiary of Expolanka Holdings PLC and the largest fresh produce exporter in the country, has plans to get into farming their produce, company officials said. “We’re interested in either growing our fruits and vegetables on our own or getting into an out grower agreement with farmers where we purchase their produce," Mohammed Annam, CEO Expolanka Ltd told the Business Times. He said the company which exports Pineapple, Tapioca (Manioc), Kiriale, Papaya, etc is looking for suitable land to grow these.
"We want to expand our activities to include control of the direct distribution of our products by getting into such backward integration in order to reduce dependency and to combat scarcity of fresh produce. By reducing supplier power and thus reducing input costs we plan to increase our exports," he explained.
He explained further that the company advertised this requirement and that they have already got many responses.
He added that Expolanka Ltd is currently searching for land in areas like Kalutara, Kurunegala and Kegalle for either an out grower arrangements or to buy land for planting crops.
The company exports around 200 metric tonnes of fresh produce a month to all Middle Eastern countries. Mr. Annam added that 60% of this produce is fruits.
“We are also interested in coconut plantation intercropping as well,” he added. He said that last year the company started exporting locally grown bananas under its ‘Mo Fruit’ brand to the Middle East.
It also started a new factory to make a value added range of dried fruits, fresh juices, canned fruits and ready to eat foods for both domestic and international markets. |
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