CIC to invest Rs. 750 m in East

Colombo: One of the leading Sri Lankan agriculture companies, CIC Agribusiness will invest Rs 500 million for a major banana export project in the Eastern Province.

This is expected to be a joint venture project with one of the leading Japanese fruit suppliers in the world. The banana cultivation would be spread over a 15,000 acre land close to Kantale River in the Eastern Province.

“We are targeting the European and Middle Eastern markets, which have a big demand for bananas,” Managing Director, CIC, Keerthi Kotagama told the ‘Daily News Business’.

He said that with the establishing of normalcy in the Eastern Province after the recent Provincial Council Elections they will kick off the project shortly. “The project would be benefiting more than 5000 out growers in the Eastern Province, in the outset.”

Under this project they will also employ 10,000 farmer families and are hoping to export more than 200,000 tones of bananas and other fruits a week. “Annually this will bring Rs. 4 billion worth of foreign exchange into the country,” Kotagama said.

The company would also establish another joint venture project with the government for a 2200 acre dairy farm project on a 49 per cent and 51 per cent partnership basis at Mutuwalla in the same province.

The investment for the project will be Rs 250 million and will produce more than 2000 litres of milk for day,” he said.

The project will also attract more than 1000 out growers in the area and the company will purchase 3000 litres of milk from the out growers.
“Apart from milk they also intend to produce 2000 tones of compost fertiliser and 8000 tones of maize on the farm itself,” Kotagama said.
Managing Director, CIC Agribusiness also said that in the Eastern Province there are plenty of lands and water.

Therefore, the company has a lot of plans to move into other areas of agriculture including rice to penetrate into export markets in the world.
CIC is also studying and assessing the ground situation to invest in agriculture related activities in the East.

CIC Agribusiness encompasses all the agriculture related businesses that are carried out within the CIC group. The company also promotes Agro Tourism.
CIC Agribusiness is driven by a simple philosophy whereby the company strives towards enhancing the income levels of farmers while enriching Sri Lanka’s Agriculture.

CIC Agribusiness also own and operate a soil testing and Tissue culture laboratory in Dambulla and operate Agro Holiday Home in Polonnaruwa on their 500 acre land.

“CIC would work towards being the leader in the Agribusiness sector providing the best quality standards, Customer focus and corporate values.”