Raigam invests Rs 400 mn in rice noodles
Shirajiv Sirimane
The Kingdom of Raigam will invest nearly Rs. 400 million to introduce
pure rice noodles.
Chairman/CEO Raigam, Dr. Ravi Liyanage said that with this
introduction and the subsequent marketing campaign they would penetrate
35% of the market in less than one year.
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Chairman Raigam, Dr. Ravi Liyanage with a new pack |
Ravi said that the annual Sri Lankan Noodle import bill is around Rs.
3.8 billion and the introduction of Raigam rice noodles would help them
nullify this bill in a short period.
In addition the demand for rice would also increase giving a higher
price for rice farmers.
Raigam rice noodles would be available in the market from next week
in three varieties in 350 gram family packs.
He said that this new production is free of any artificial flavours,
colours or preservatives and he challenged that if anyone could prove
otherwise, he is willing to pay them a million rupees in cash.
Dr. Liyanage also said the project would create over 200 employment
opportunities.
He recalled that a few years ago he revolutionized Sri Lankan Soya
industry with the introduction of a series of soya products under the
brand name Raigam. . “When I first introduced soya to Sri Lanka in
attractive packs sales increased from 350,000 packs to over 7.5
million.”
He said similarly this rice noodle packs would create a major market
in the country and there would be a drastic reduction of the consumption
of bread which would also be beneficial to the health.Dr. Liyanage
further stated that he invested over Rs. 20 million for R&D for the
introduction of this noodle and he is ready to share this technology
with anyone interested.
Commenting on the production of Raigam salt, he said that they have
the largest salt factory in Trincomalee and this has helped the country
to reduce the salt import bill which once again ran to several billion
of rupees.
“We are now planning to introduce ‘Artemia’ a small fish that is food
for prawns.”
This variety could breed in salterns and we will start commercial
production by the end of next year. Currently a pound of Artemia cost
around Rs. 15,000 and over 80 % is being imported.
Ravi also said that since they have 1,805 acres in the Trincomalee
Saltern they are also planning on introducing Eco tourism by next year.
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