Tuesday 23 June 2015

Thai poultry giant eyes Sri Lanka

Shirajiv Sirimane (shirajivs@gmail.com)

One of the world’s top four poultry farms based in Thailand will be investing in Sri Lanka, Thailand’s Ambassador in Sri Lanka Nopporn Adchariyavanich said.

Speaking to Daily News business he said the Thailand based company has done a comprehensive study in Sri Lanka and was satisfied to invest in Sri Lanka. The company will bring in new technology to Sri Lanka and have their complete products range done in Sri Lanka. This also includes the manufacture of Chicken feed.

One of the main reasons for the Thai based company to enter Sri Lanka is the huge demand they foresee for this sector. The company is also aggressively looking at the export potential from Sri Lanka.

The company is also happy that no major poultry related diseases were reported from Sri Lanka.

“They should start operations in Sri Lanka by end of this year,”the envoy said.

He said that several Aquatic based companies are also keen to invest in Sri Lanka. “However, the Red card shown to Sri Lanka by the EU is currently keeping them way.”

He also said that the Thai Embassy has noted with rather disappointment that trade between the two countries is moving at a slow pace. “Thailand entrepreneurs have a large market within the country where the population is over 68 million. In addition they also export to neighbouring counties and hence have a market in and around Thailand. One top of this, Thailand will also soon join the ASEAN Economic Community which has given them even more opportunities with in the region.”

“Due to this I have identified certain areas where both countries could benefit. This includes the agri, construction, tourism and waste management areas.”

Initiated by the Thai Embassy in Sri Lanka, a special Sri Lanka business delegation is being formulated and they would be visiting Thailand in August.

“We have invited members from these thrust areas to meet with the Sri Lankan delegation.” He said that another area where he wants to focus on is tourism and with both countries being Buddhist, there is tremendous scope for inbound tourism.

The trade between the two countries was at around US$ 500 million last year with the trade balance in favour of Thailand.

Reconditioned cars, sugar, fisheries products and general trading top the list from Thailand while gem exports is the biggest export from Sri Lanka.

He said that both the countries are celebrating 60 years of relations this year and will also have several programs to mark this achievement.

- See more at: http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=business/thai-poultry-giant-eyes-sl#sthash.lfNDJmap.dpuf

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