Plans to commence exports:

Wayamba Salterns in expansion drive

By Lalin Fernandopulle

Wayamba Salterns will complete construction work on the Pure Vacuum Dried (PVD) plant and salterns in the country this year, said Chairman/CEO, Wayamba Salterns, Dr. Ravi Liyanage. He said work on these projects are progressing and added that the operation of the new salterns and the PVD plant will contribute immensely to salt production in the country.

A saltern in Puttalam

“Sri Lanka spends enormously on the import of large quantities of salt annually which is a huge drain on foreign exchange.The construction of more salterns will help the country to reach self sufficiency soon” Dr. Liyanage said.

The import of salt has dropped to around 5-10 percent from around 30 percent a few years ago.

The annual import of salt costs around US$ 1 million.

“The PVD plant at Puttalam is the first pure vacuum dried salt plant in the country which will help reduce the cost of raw material and offer a new salt product which has a great demand in the hotel sector”, Dr. Liyanage said.

Wayamba Salterns generated a turnover of Rs. 260 million last year following the expansion and development of the salterns. The company focused on construction of new salterns and development of projects.

Dr. Liyanage said the government approved the clearance of the two-acre land in Kuchchiveli to construct the largest saltern in the country and added that work on the project will be completed as scheduled.

“The construction of bunds and a full-fledged two storey factory where a state of the art salt refinery will be set up have to be completed under the first phase of the project”, he said. The operation of the Kuchchiveli saltern will help Sri Lanka to be self-sufficient in salt and increase the production of salt based products such as caustic soda, soda-ash and chlorine.

Wayamba Salterns plans to eliminate the import of salt through its enhanced production and commence exports of its finely refined crystal salt”, Dr Liyanage said.

He said the war ravaged salterns should be renovated. Salterns should be designed to minimise the damage to harvest from adverse weather conditions. High rainfall has been a major reason for the low production of salt in the country.

“A national policy and commitment of industry players are vital to develop the salt industry in Sri Lanka. The Cess imposed on salt import should be retained and mechanisms should be adopted to protect the industry”, Dr. Liyanage said.

Wayamba Salterns Ltd., a subsidiary of the Raigam Group, a BOI company was set up in 2005. The company has manufacturing plants in Puttalam, Tangalle and Trincomalee. The 120-acre manufacturing plant in Puttalam is the only salt refinery in the country using world- renowned Krebs Swiss Salex Technology to produce free flow table salt.