CIC Agri Businesses to export to Ethiopia

Indunil HEWAGE

CIC Agri Businesses Ltd is planning to export its agricultural products to Ethiopia in the coming years, says CIC Agri Businesses Private Limited Managing Director Keerthi Kotagama. CIC Agri Businesses currently exports rice, banana, foliage, tissue culture plants and other products to various countries and it has plans to aggressively expand its presence in Middle East countries in the near future.

Speaking to Daily News Business, Kotagama said CIC Agri Businesses has already signed MoUs with a Dubai based company to promote agricultural products in Middle-East countries as well as to further set up joint ventures in abroad. We are currently looking at Ethiopia for agricultural exports.

Sri Lanka has a huge potential of exporting agricultural products like rice, maize, soya beans, fruits, vegetables and even poultry products. According to Kotagama, there will be a huge demand for quality food ,cooked products due to the emerging tourism industry and rising per capita income in the country.

“The company will in addition invest Rs 160 million to set up a winery in Kilinochchi area thereby creating a large number of job opportunities to local farmers across the area. With tourism booming, we saw an opening for the wine market and decided to invest in it. Today Sri Lanka imports over 90 percent of its grapes mainly from Australia and India and nearly 99 percent of wine imports .When the project is launched they could provide red and white wines and grapes less than 75 % of the current prices,” Kotagama said.