Helping hand for local entrepreneur

COLOMBO: Ajith Dissanayake, a self reliant local entrepreneur who has mastered the art of producing bread, biscuits and other food items using local raw materials is to be provided with State assistance to develop his industry as a flagship industry.

This follows a request by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka to Trade, Marketing Development, Co-operatives and Consumer Services Minister Bandula Gunawardena following a meeting with Dissanayake at the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday.

The Prime Minister has requested Minister Gunawardena to provide assistance to Dissanayake to help improve and extend his business.

A Prime Minister’s Office communique said that Dissanayake describing his venture in detail told the Prime Minister that he was able to sell a loaf of bread made of maize flour at Rs. 20.

The bread made by him had a shelf life of nearly three years because he was not using yeast and margarine for the baking process. Dissanayake said he also had a recipe to produce biscuits and pittu utilising lotus rice, jak seeds, green gram, cowpea, gingelly kurakkan, and bread fruit. It takes only two minutes for him to turn out these items.

He was using an oil made of five products of the margossa tree for the mixture as a preservative so that the products can have a long shelf life unlike products using yeast and margarine.

His products are of a very high quality and nutritious value and lack of technological knowhow and machinery was impeding his efforts to expand this business and production capacity. Wickramanayake in reply assured Dissanayake that the Government was always prepared to assist industries based on local raw materials.

Prime Minister Wickramanayake in reply assured Dissanayake’s effort said such enterprising youth were any asset to Nation.

The Prime Minister requested Dissanayake to continue his business undaunted by obstacles on his path.