Sadaharitha Plantations diversifies operations

Sadaharitha Plantations Limited, a company in the commercial forestry business, has diversified operations into export of tea, fresh fruits and vegetables to high-end markets.

The company has been in teak, agarwood, sandalwood and rambuttan plantations for the past 12 years. The company diversified its business seeing the immense potential in the export market for value added products. It exports to leading hotel chains and markets in the Middle East and Europe.

"Our commercial forestry business has brought good returns and the customer base has increased over the years reposing confidence in our technology, research and expertise", a top official of the company said.

Sadaharitha has over 20,000 registered investors and over 2,000 acres of land has been cultivated. The company has secured the ISO 14001 quality certification due to maintenance of industry best practices.

Company officials at a media briefing last week dismissed speculation that commercial plantations is high risk sector with a low success rate. Officials said that the company which embarked on commercial forestry had now ventured into planting agarwood, a lucrative crop in world markets, having done extensive research for over three years.

"We are confident that our venture into agarwood will reap satisfactory results contributing to the economy of the country and the forestry industry," an official said.

The company had 350,000 plants at its nursery in Ingiriya and of which around 150,000 have been sold. The government has provided Rs. 5.8 million to the company for research and development of the project. Agarwood is primarily a dry zone crop widely grown in Malaysia.

The company maintains a buffer stock for re-plantation at its plantations.

The government plans to increase forestry to 35 percent from the current cover of around 29 percent. Proper management, regulation and good plantation practices will help increase forestry cover in the country.

Plantation companies call for intervention of the State and a regulatory mechanism for the commercial forestry industry which lacks good practices and efficient management.

LF