Tess Group to boost local canned fish production
By P. Krishnaswamy
The Tess Group of Companies launched a fully Sri Lankan canned fish
product 'Oliver's Pride' at a ceremony at the Cinnamon Lakeside on
Thursday.
Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister Dr. Rajitha
Senaratne was the chief guest.CEO and Director, Tess Group of Companies,
Shiran Fernando said that the project became a success due to the
encouragement and assistance provided by Minister Senaratne.
He said that the company will, in the course of time, meet the
national need of 125,000 cans per day while at present they only
produced one fourth of it. Although Sri Lanka is surrounded by ocean on
all sides, the fish resources in the North and the East could not be
harvested for many decades but the situation has now changed and they
are getting fish from all coastal areas, he said.The brand has been
named after his enterprising father, Oliver Fernando, who had been in
business for over 35 years, he said.
The Minister lauded the indomitable spirit, courage and
entrepreneurship of the CEO and Director, Shiran Fernando and other
stakeholders of the company for the successful launch of the product
amidst insurmountable obstruction and harassment by multinational
companies in the industry.
From the early 70s, since the time of the then Prime Minister S.W.R.D.
Bandaranaike, repeated efforts made by the Government, in collaboration
with large companies, to launch a fish canning industry in Sri Lanka
were unsuccessful because of obstruction by the multinational companies,
the Minister said.
The efforts of the Tess group of companies, under its own initiative,
to launch a joint venture with the Plaza, Japan, also became futile
after the tsunami that hit Japan destroyed everything owned by Plaza,
the Minister said.
Tess has now offered for the first time an innovative, quality
product made of ‘virgin coconut oil and tuna’ at a low price, he said.
When he took over the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
Development, it was in debt to the tune of Rs.123 million but all that
has been overcome and the Ministry is now on the right track promoting
local aquatic products, he said. |