Bio Foods in Lanka to reach US$ 20 m in sales

Indunil HEWAGE

The World’s first Fair Trade Registered Exporter and Processor for Spices and coconut milk, Bio Foods (Pvt) Ltd in Sri Lanka, is expected to reach US$ 20 million in sales revenue by the end of 2012. Bio Foods is a processor and exporter of organic products such as green teas, black teas, spices, herbs and other post-harvest food items in its own processing units.

Bio Foods purchase organically grown raw material from nearly 6,000 farmer families, under a strict internal control system of Bio Foods. Bio Food products are exported to all European markets, including UK , Switzerland as well as USA, Canada, Japan and Australia. Our products are well known outside Sri Lanka and the company does not engage in any propaganda campaign to promote our services and products as a result. Bio Foods (Pvt)Ltd., Chairman Dr. Sarath Ranaweera, told Daily News Business.

“There is a steady demand for organic products outside Sri Lanka, especially from Eastern European markets and China. We are so in demand by foreign countries and plans are on to increase the production capacity of Bio Foods at Pannampitiya factory by 50% in the coming months. In addition, we are on the look out to expanding our presence in all states in USA in the near future.

Organic cultivation is an environmental friendly, culturally sensitive and economically viable business and organizations in the respective field, need to have a good marketing strategy to become more successful and sustainable in this business.

You can’t claim organic farming produces' lower yields than conventional methods of farming; entrepreneurs in the organic food business in Sri Lanka need to get the industry professionals’ assistance when it comes to convert any land to organic cultivation in order to have a sound crop production.

Organic food should not always have a high premium, we should be able to sell organic food with a marginal premium in the local market.

Most of the products of Bio Foods are certified under the fair trade label and the company is also know as a sustainable fair trade model in Asia.