Sunanda strikes balance in life and business

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

In a rapidly changing world where development plays the centre stage humans become material driven. The essential human qualities such as love, care and compassion fast disappear and are replaced by the desire to gain quick profits regardless of difficulties encountered by others.

Promoting harmony, loving kindness, sharing and caring among fellow human beings Sujan International (Pvt) Ltd Chairperson Sundanda Weerasinghe has ventured into a novel business where she promotes vegetarianism.

The company functions under the tag line ‘be veg go green save our earth’ and has become successful in its product offering. She is a shining example of extending kindness towards humans and animals and awakening human inner strength through vegetarianism.

Her ambitious efforts to impart knowledge to improve food cultivation will bear fruits in near future making Sri Lanka a green country.

She was interviewed by Daily News Business.

Excerpts of the interview.

Q. How do you describe your line of business?

A. I started Sujan International 14 years back in 1997 as a vegetarian company. I believe that civilization and modern technology has taken man to great heights, but the mind has not developed at a similar pace.

Most people are striving to accumulate material things thinking it is happiness which is not. I became a vegetarian after reading the autobiography of Mahathma Gandhi. I consider him to be the greatest non- violence activist. I come from a business family and my father late Ariyadasa Paranagama was a native medicine supplier of Galle. I started developing products, particularly food items. I went to UK for training and afterwards developed my own product range. I also have undergone training in Korea, Japan, Thailand, India, UK and Germany. I visited trade exhibitions with the help of USAID and these experiences helped me immensely to develop products and positioning. Today the company offers different vegetarian products ranging from jelly, cereal, meatless meat and soya milk under the brand names of Supersun and Classic which are HACCP certified.

Q. How do you manage time to handle your personal life?

A. I was a teacher before venturing into vegetarian food production. My daughter is married now and I have a grandson. The venture is a 24-hour commitment. However, I schedule my work to ensure quality time with my family.

Q. What motivated you to venture into business?

A. Since I was interested in vegetarianism and wanted to contribute promoting this among people, I ventured into business.

Q. What are your goals?

A. Though there are goals they are not worldly but more towards spirituality.

I try to achieve business success by striking a balance between my spiritual objectives and material needs.

Q. How do you face competition?

A. I never engage in competition with anyone, be it business or in personal life.

Competition is not in my agenda. My focus is on promoting vegetarianism to cerate non-violence in the minds of everyone. Therefore, I do not compete in any way though my market share is small. I have a niche market and I hope more people will patronize my products in years to come and there will be a good demand for vegetarian food.

Q. What example do you provide others?

A. The path chosen by me may not be the most profitable venture. I think of social responsibility and long-term end results. I am determined to contribute towards non-violence in life.

Q. What is your specialty?

A. When I see land that is not cultivated, but suited for growing crops, in my mind I see a land filled with plants. This motivates me to engage more and more in promoting agriculture and food production. This is in a way an obsession.

As we are non-committed with all these resources around, it is very sad that we import bulk of our food requirement.

We are a country blessed with ideal conditions for agriculture, but sad to say that very little effort is taken for this purpose.

Besides promoting vegetarianism I also promote cultivation to make the country reach the desired level of food production.

Q. What are your achievements in business?

A. I have won a number of awards for my untiring efforts and these are a great inspiration and encouragement. I won two gold awards from the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Entrepreneur of the year award and award for most innovative enterprise. I also won an award at the Agri-biz for the most innovative product range.

I am the recipient of SAARC Country Award at the Green Summit in India for the vegetarian company for saving the earth. I was elected as the third Vice President of Sri Lanka Food Processors Association and worked towards the benefit of the industry.

I have published a book, a joint venture with Dr. Sujatha Weerasinghe as a public private partnership to see the country developing towards an independent agricultural economy.

The book provides expert knowledge for commercial farming as well as home gardening for the benefit of Agri enthusiasts.

Apart from these achievements, on a personal note, I have translated Arahath Maga Arahath pala which is available online www.forestdhammabooks.com which is a great satisfaction for me.

This is based on a story of Ven Maha Arahat Maha Boova who is believed to have attained Arahathood. The story describe steps up to the final stage of Arahathhood and a must read for the Buddhists.

Q. What is your message to society?

A. We are born to great Buddhist philosophy. The core of the philosophy is nurturing unlimited loving kindness and respect for each other. The business also conveys a similar message.

We need to realize the value of Lord Buddha’s teaching and lead a meaningful life which has far reaching benefits.

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