Agro Nutrition to export veterinary medicine to Holland and Africa

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

For the first time a local pharmaceutical manufacturing company, Agro Nutrition (Pvt.) will be exporting a veterinary medicinal product to Holland and Africa. Prabath Fonseka, Chairman Managing Director of Agro Nutrition, told ‘Daily News’ Business that they have invented a ‘herbal wound spray’ which is to be used to treat cows.

Prabath Fonseka

He said the product was locally designed through their Research and Development (R&D) and they have also got clearance from Europe to export the product to Europe and Africa. He said that they would be using herbal products and have carried out confined tests before obtaining clearance from Europe.Fonseka who is a chemist by profession said that they already export over 15 veterinary medicinal products to the SAARC region and Europe. “All our products have undergone the necessary thorough scientific screening, and most of the raw materials that we use are of European origin.”

Commenting on the local veterinary medical market he said that though their products are around 25% lower than imported products, dairy farmers still prefer to use imported medicine.

He said that with plans to make Sri Lanka self sufficient in dairy production (currently Sri Lanka imports over 80% of powered milk) they see a growing local demand for their veterinary products. “Agro Nutrition (Pvt) Ltd was established in 1987. We have introduced a variety of products to enhance the production of farm animals.”

Fonseka said that he was pleased to see that Sri Lanka has achieved self sufficiency in both chicken and eggs and said that an additional Rs. 2 per egg for the producer would encourage more people to take to poultry industry.

The company currently employees about 50 people including chemists, pharmacists and technologists and have invested around Rs. 200 million so far.

He said that they are looking at introducing medicine for humans in the future.