Sri Lanka’s fruit, vegetable and dairy sectors draw foreign interest
The Morning: A Russian delegation has expressed interest in investing in several agricultural projects in Sri Lanka related to fruits and vegetables under a buy-back arrangement, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Ministry of Agriculture Director Media W.M.D. Wanninayake revealed that a Russian delegation had recently visited the country and expressed an interest in investing in agricultural projects relating to fruits and vegetables.
Elaborating further, he stated: “They will bear the costs of cultivation, including costs for fertilizer and seeds. Thereafter they will buy back the harvest and then export it.”
He stated that several rounds of discussions had already been held with the Russian delegation and current expectations were to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by early 2024.
He stated that an Indian delegation had also visited the country recently and carried out discussions with the ministry regarding the domestic dairy farming industry and expressed an interest to invest.
Clarifying, he stated that the Indian delegation was not Amul but a similar Indian farming cooperative that was looking to invest in Sri Lanka.
“They were interested in helping the local dairy farmers to improve our domestic milk production. Thereafter, they will distribute the produced milk locally,” he stated.
He also revealed that a Japanese delegation had recently informed the Ministry of Agriculture that they were ready to offer a one-year internship training at several Japanese universities for 60 students studying agricultural sciences at local universities.
According to him, each student will be granted an allowance of around ¥ 150,000 per month and will have the freedom to engage in any part-time jobs if they so desire.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s economic activities have opened up a host of new business/investment opportunities in many key economic sectors including the agriculture and dairy industries. The growing demand for food supplies have created business/investment opportunities. The increase in demand has also created new opportunities in the development of infrastructure and supplementary infrastructure facilities required by the agriculture and dairy industries to meet the demand while being on par with the latest global trends. With Sri Lanka working towards becoming an emerging business destination in the South Asian region and the growth in business potential as a result have attracted many foreign businesses/investors to explore the expanding business/investment opportunities in the agriculture and dairy industries. Local businesses engaged in these industries have shown growth and profits, foreign businesses could therefore also look at forming partnerships or joint ventures with local businesses with the aim of further expansion.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20231214/Z_1 |