Continuing on their quest to introduce novel products to the local and export market the Palmyrah Development Board has introduced Palmyrah Sugar to the local market.
“The product was designed and developed at our R&D center and is now available at selected outlets in Colombo and Jaffna,” said Palmyrah Development Board (PDB), Chairman, Krishantha Pathiraja.
He said that they would now invest to build a Mini Palmyrah Sugar processing plant in North to increase production and also for export. He said that this is a niche product and they are already in talks with Canada and Australia supermarket chains to export.
He said that the Ministry of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development headed by Minister Wimal Weerawansa is keen to extract the untapped natural resources especially in the North East and put them to productive use. He further added, “This will firstly help the Northerner to understand that the government is genuinely taking initiatives to increase their money flow by way of giving them high value for their traditional products. Secondly it will also create self-employment projects for the Northerner who has been cold shouldered by successive governments.”
He said that since the Minister Weerawansa took over the PDB several new products such as Palmyrah Jaggery and ice cream has been introduced with Alarics Ice Cream co.
In addition Minister Weerawansa has identified that producing Palmyrah fiber locally would be a major revenue generator for the industry. “Currently local fiber product exporters are importing around Rs. 4.3 million worth fiber monthly and we have now opened two plans in North East helping to trim down this export bill.”
The first Palmyrah Fiber Processing Centre was opened in Manner with a target to manufacture 15 tons of fiber in 6 months. “We have also come to a forward buying agreement with coir based product exporters to purchase fiber from this factory thus saving FOREX.”
Since large companies like Heyleys are buying locally produced Palmyrah fiber it has also given them a huge saving. (SS)
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