SWITCH-Asia unveils success stories

SWITCH-Asia Food and Beverages Project of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce held a mini symposium on Sustainable Consumption and Production recently.

SWITCH-Asia Programme Project Director S.M. Sathiacama, speaking at the event said that the project which was commenced in 2009 helps Small and Medium Enterprises make their production process efficient by conserving energy and translate these savings to profits.

The implementing agency of the project highlighted the importance of food and beverage producers as well as all other manufacturers to be environmentally friendly and adopt practices that conserve energy and resources, CCC Solutions CEO Prema Cooray said.

The event was attended by a large number of the project's stakeholders in the Food and Beverages Industry ranging from plantations to dairy processing companies and representatives from the European Union, the project's funding agency and also personnel from the Ministries of Environment, Finance and Industry and Commerce.

Minister Counsellor, Head of Finance and Contracts of the European Union Wim Prud'homme highlighted the relationship between the European Union and Sri Lanka and its presence in the country for a long period of time and about its grants extended to Sri Lanka to rebuild after the conflict.

A number of stakeholders of the SWITCH-Asia Food and Beverages Project presented their successful case studies and shared their experiences and knowledge thus inspiring more and more organizations to learn and adopt their conservation success stories.

The entities that shared their success stories were: Convenience Food (Lanka) PLC, Dunagaha Coconut Producers Co-operatives Society, Foreconns Canneries Pvt Ltd, Glenugie Tea Processing Centre-Maskeliya Plantation PLC,

Laxapana Tea Processing Centre-Maskeliya Plantation PLC, Maxies and Company Pvt Ltd, Panilkanda Tea Factory-New Saman Group Pvt Ltd and Richlife Dairies Pvt Ltd. (SJ)