Serendib Horticulture wins Gold

Serendib Horticulture Technologies won the Gold award for Research/ Development and Innovations in the Services sector in the medium category at the recently concluded National Agribusiness Council Agri Business awards 2012.

The company also won the Bronze award in the medium category for production and exports.

Dilip de Silva, Chairman / CEO, commenting on the awards, said that this was a collective effort by the company’s staff.

The Biotechnology division headed by Ms. Isha Wijeyeratnam, has been working hard to develop new protocols in horticulture. “We have now developed protocols for some novel varieties. Some of these varieties would be commercialized this year,” he said These varieties were bound to bring in a lot of foreign exchange to the country.

Commenting further on the achievement, de Silva said that the project in Qatar, witch was being done with the Biotechnology Centre, Ministry of Environment, has been progressing very well. Several new protocols have been developed for dessert plants, which would be of immense value to Qatar.

These varieties have never been developed before. The project in Rwanda, which the company started in 2011, is progressing very well, with several fruit varieties being developed for commercial propagation. This too, has been done due to the strength of the company’s technical superiority. Several other foreign projects were being discussed at the moment. When asked about the future plans for the company, de Silva mentioned that it was hoping to expand its research potential and new investments were being planned. New staff had already been recruited and would be working on projects that would have national significance.

Several foreign companies too have shown interest in collaborating on these ventures.