Hingurana Sugar factory to re-open

Shirajiv Sirimanne

COLOMBO: The Hingurana Sugar factory, closed for over a decade, is to be re-opened as a Government private sector partnership project this year. The total investment for this would be Rs. 1.287 billion.

According to Investment Promotion and Enterprise Development Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama, the agreement to re-start the factory will be signed next month.

The Government would hold 51 per cent of controlling sharers while both Browns Group and LOLC would hold 24.5 per cent of shares each. The factory will be renamed Galoya Plantation Company.

The project will generate 800 direct employment benefitting 4,400 families. The opening of the factory would also open employment opportunities for sugarcane outgrowers.

Sri Lanka’s annual sugar consumption is 625,000 metric tons and the country has been importing 90 per cent of sugar from India and many countries. This will help increase local production and save foreign exchange.

Sevanagala and Pelwatte Sugar factories have been producing only 10 per cent of local sugar needs.

Hingurana factory in Ampara established in 1991, one of the biggest sugar cane factories in the country was privatised two years later. Due to various problems the factory closed operations in 1996 and since then none of the successive Governments could re-open this venture.