Pussalla in Rs 1 b expansion drive

Largest hatchery to increase capacity:

Indunil HEWAGE

The Sri Lankan poultry industry giant Pussalla Meat Producers (Pvt) Ltd intends to increase production while developing the other related segments of the company particularly hatchery and breeder farms with a total estimated investment of around Rs 1,000 million.

Pussalla Meat Producers is the only vertically integrated poultry company in Sri Lanka with the largest hatchery which has the capacity to produce three million chicks per month and that will be running on full operation by December. With that, 25 percent of country’s requirement of chicken will be produced by Pussalla Meat Producers. Presently, the company produces one million chicks per month and another two million will be added to the system within one year, Pussalla Meat Producers Managing Director Dilshan Wewita told Daily News Business.

The company is on a massive expansion drive to cater to the country’s demand for chicken products and carve a niche in every segment in the poultry industry.

“When we expand, we expand in all the sectors and are committed to provide ultimate farm to fork services to our customers,” Wewita said.

It has plans to open a chicken related family restaurant in Colombo and this would be done by either the Pussalla company itself or with a franchise of a chicken products related international brand .

In addition, the company has already established grandparent operations with a French company named Hubberd breeders to produce the country’s requirement of parent stock. The company will be starting the above operation in four months and with this partnership, nearly 40 percent of the country’s requirement of parent stock will be produced by the company.

This initiative will assist in curtailing the large amount of money that is continually draining out to other countries to import parent stocks every year. Commenting on the present status of the poultry industry Wewita says “Sri Lanka is on par with any country in the world when it comes to production, feed conversion ratio, poultry farms and other aspects as well. Most of the local companies have also managed to receive international quality standards for their poultry farm operations.

“However, the cost of production has been a major impediment that prevents the county’s ability to compete with international players,” he said.

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