CIC to invest nearly Rs. 1b. in North, East

by Shirajiv SIRIMANE

CIC Agri Businesses will invest Rs. 550 million to establish one of the biggest dairies in Sri Lanka in the liberated Eastern province. This is a joint venture with Ministry of Agriculture and Mahaweli land would be utilized.

Managing Director/CEO, CIC Agri Businesses, Keerthi B. Kotagama said that they had always been looking at the North East for investment opportunities and liberation of the Eastern province prompted them to make this investment. CIC has already invested Rs. 70 million and production has commenced and the total project would be completed in two years.

When completed the project would produce over 20,000 litres of fresh milk per month. The company would also introduce the out growers where over 2,000 families would be provided with cattle with the undertaking that CIC would purchase fresh milk from them. Technical assistance and micro finance too would be arranged for them and it is expected that each family would be able to earn around Rs. 20,000 from this project.

They would also import 200 cattle suitable for Sri Lankan climate from Australia for breeding purposes.

Sri Lanka spends over Rs. 18 billion per annum for import of milk powder and projects of this nature. "With the clearing of the North we will now look at investing in the Northern province as well". "We want to introduce hybrid seed varieties and are looking at establishing a seed farm to meet the projected demand of the North," he said.

CIC already has one of the most advanced soil testing and seed producing laboratories in South Asia at Palwehera, Dambula. "We are looking at around 1,000 acres for this project and are ready to invest over Rs. 200 million for the project," he said.

He said that with permanent peace there would be many local and foreign investors who would invest in the North and East. "To meet their requirements we are also hoping to set up an Agro consultation firm in Colombo and Kandy to service investor needs," he said.

Under this scheme our teams would visit lands to do soil testing and also provide land, equipment and finances if necessary. In addition they also want to build bungalows to attract local and foreign tourists for Agro tourism that has already been introduced in Palwehera and at their farm in Hingurakgoda.

The company will set up a Banana farm for exports in Kantale with the financial assistance from a Japanese company in an extent of over 15,000 acres. "We also want to have 7,500 out growers for this project," he said.

They are targeting the US and Gulf markets and hope to net in over Rs. 5 billion in foreign exchange earnings annually. All these investments would pass a Rs. one billion.