Archives

By Shirajiv Sirimane

The new management of Pelwatte Sugar Industries Ltd., plan to make Sri Lanka self sufficient in sugar and milk following the take over of a 53 percent stake of the company.

"Sri Lanka imports 90% of sugar and 80% of milk related products. Therefore, our aim is to reduce this gap and make Sri Lanka self sufficient in sugar and milk soon," Chairman Master Divers, Ariyaseela Wickramanayake said.

Speaking to the 'Daily News' he said that he saw great potential in these two markets and as a first step towards reaching this goal, brought 53 percent stake in Pelwatte Sugar Industries Ltd, for Rs. 288.75 million recently.

Sri Lanka produces only 3,000 tonnes of sugar while the annual demand is 30, 000 tonnes per annum. Sugar imports costs up to Rs.10 billion last year.

Mr. Wickramanayake said that 8% of locally produced sugar is manufactured at the Pelwatte Factory. "But we see that there is great scope for this factory to expand.

I have been told that with an investment of around Rs. 40 million the factory could be geared to manufacture 90% more than what it is producing today," he said. Mr. Wickramanayake said that if this target is accomplished Sri Lanka would be very close to being self-sufficient in sugar.

The Chairman said that Sri Lanka's agriculture market had undergone major changes in the last three decades and people have found that traditional cash crops such as rubber are not yielding profits that it used to offer. "Even the Palm Oil industry is having problems today and I have found that it is far more profitable to grow sugar cane." he said. "We need more sugar cane growers in Sri Lanka to reach our goal."

Mr. Wickramanayake said that sugar cane grows well in the Southern Province especially in areas such as Elpitiya, Baddegama and the areas in Ratnapura district where there are no wild elephant threats. "The sugar cane tree can be harvested after 12 months and thereafter it can be cut every month. What I suggest is that new sugar cane plantations should be done in intervals of one month each in separate blocks, so that the farmer will earn an income every month," he said.

Asked how he plans to solve the problem of transporting sugar cane to Pelwatte from the Southern Province, he said he plans to set up several centres to convert sugar cane to syrup. "This will also create more job opportunities and cut down our transport costs by at least 80%."

He said that there are 23 plantation companies in Sri Lanka which own around 1,000 hectares each and he plans to influence them to divert to grow sugar cane.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager