Lumbini Aquaria spreads industry dominance

Indunil Hewage

Lumbini Aquaria Wayamba Ltd, one of the pioneer organizations in the ornamental fish export industry is ready to spread its dominance across the country as well as in the international markets increasing its monthly fish production capacity from 17 million to 20 million by the end of 2012.

Lumbini Aquaria recently won an accolade by becoming the first ornamental fish export company to receive ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standard certification.

“Lumbini has also shown an impressive growth in sales revenue amounting to Rs 135 million for 2011, as against Rs 114 million in 2010. Industry wise, revenue of ornamental fish exports exceeded Rs 1 billion mark in 2011 and Sri Lanka is expected to achieve Rs 1.5 billion in ornamental fish exports by 2012,” Lumbini Aquaria Wayamba Ltd Director and CEO Harindra Kuruppu told Daily News Business.

The year 2011 had been an impressive year for Lumbini Aquaria as well as for the industry and the growth has been attributed to increase in volume of ornamental fish exports.

Commenting on the future industry prospectives, Kuruppu said “Industry is picking up with the dawn of peace and on the global basis, our buyers are demanding new varieties every day.

To meet their aspirations, it is imperative for us to invest in the research and development sector aggressively. In addition, prices of fish meal has gone up within a short period of time and this has become a major impediment for the industry as well as for the company performance to a greater extent.”

The Lumbini Aquaria customer base extends across the world from the United States to Europe, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, Asia and Japan.

“Our own research and development team carries out trials to further develop our product on packaging as well as the arrival condition of the fish.

They have also been able to produce many new strains of guppies, platies and swordtails which gives our clients an edge over our competitors,” Kuruppu said.

The main farm of the company is situated in Giriulla and other farms are in Narammala and Miriswatta. Lumbini Aquaria Wayamba Ltd has already provided more than 105 direct employment opportunities and provided indirect employment to more than 100 families.

The company’s extensive product range includes fresh water fish, brackish water fish, cold water fish, marine invertebrates and aquatic plants.

The company’s production of guppies increases up to 1.5 million per month only from Giriulla farm and varieties of platies and swordtails are produced in the other farms.