Serendib in plant deal with Rwanda

Indunil HEWAGE

Serendib Horticulture Technologies Pvt Ltd, which is a prime plant bio technology company in Sri Lanka will expand its presence in Rwanda extending support to uplift its agriculture industry.

Accordingly, the company will provide various fruit varieties produced through tissue culture technology to Rwanda.

The Serendib nursery lab in Kalagedihena.

“This contract has been awarded to a American company named SAIM Africa by the Rwanda government and we have been selected by SAIM Africa to produce pineapple and banana, fruit tomato and passion fruit through tissue culture technology,” Serendib Horticulture Technologies Chairman and CEO Dilip de Silva told the Daily News Business.

The project will initially commence at the end of this month and Serenbid Horticulture Technologies will provide 50,000 banana and 50,000 pineapple plants to Rwanda as the initial stage of the project.

In addition, the company is discussing with the Jaffna Agriculture Director to ascertain the capabilities to propagate various fruit plants specially banana varieties in the Northern areas and is on the lookout to set up a nursery in the Jaffna district.

The company will also be looking at collaborating with the Jaffna University to build a mini tissue culture unit in the university premises.

Dole Corporation, which is the world’s biggest fruit company has been a major client of Serendib Horticulture. “We have provided 1.4 million banana and over 1 million pineapple plants to Dole Corporation farms in Buttala and Embilipitiya during the first nine months this year,” he said.

In 2006, Serendib Horticulture won an international tender to conduct a feasibility study for Agriculture Ministry in Qatar to set up a bio technology centre in Qatar.

The company has successfully completed the study and made recommendations to the Ministry to set up a regional centre for the GCC countries.

Subsequently, the company has been selected by the state of Qatar for capacity building and technology transfer for the biotechnology centre in Doha.

A one year contract has been awarded and this is the first time a Sri Lankan company has been hired by a foreign government to advocate the government on training and technology transfer.