The future for sustainable and ethical food business

Founded three decades ago, Ma’s has grown into Sri Lanka’s leading family meal solutions provider. Along with a reputation of offering only the highest quality processed and ready to eat foods for the local and export market, this family-owned company has a proven commitment to the communities in which it works.

Over the last 10 years it has been introducing more certified ethically produced and sustainable products and as a result, Ma’s Kitchen has further backward integrated with small farmer groups from around Sri Lanka who are organic and Fairtrade certified. 

“Being ‘organic and fair’ goes beyond just producing food under certified standards. For a family of social entrepreneurs, it means a much larger and lifelong commitment to society and nature. This is the principle we believed in when founding the company and now we are passing this legacy on to the next generation,” said Mario Alwis, Managing Director of Ma’s Kitchen. “We have been privileged to live and work among different rural farmer communities in Dambulla, Matale, Minuangoda, Hakmana and now at our latest project Lyakkachchi in the north.”

In line with the company’s founding philosophy of sustainability beyond its own business and supply chain, the company has been a driving force behind shaping food processing and agribusiness in Sri Lanka. Ma’s was a founding member of both the Sri Lanka Food Processors Association and the National Agribusiness Council. 

As a gift to the fraternity on its 30th anniversary the company is organising a workshop on ‘The Sustainable Food Business’ to be held in the afternoon of 26 July. The event will focus and facilitate discussions on a wide range of topics with specialist presenters expected from many parts of the world. The event seeks to educate and share knowledge with a wide audience representing the private sector, NGOs and Government departments. 

The event will focus on four major topics covering ‘The Global Organic Market’ which a discussion on the global organic food situation and its current trends and opportunities lead by the founder of Europe’s pioneering and most successful organic trading company. The discussion on ‘The Global Fairtrade Market’ will be led by the product manager for Europe’s oldest Fairtrade company. 

The third topic ‘Community Business’ will be led by leading social entrepreneur and Chairman of Japan’s best known ethical business group which has rejuvenated Japanese ethical trade by setting up Incubators for young social entrepreneurs around Japan. 

The final discussion panel on ‘The value of Social Compliance to the modern food business’ will be led by a partner of one of India’s well-known social equity funds, the Aavishkarr Frontier Fund, which is specialised in investing in ethical and sustainable business in South and South east Asia. 

All discussions will consist of short presentations and then a panel discussion with expert panelist both local and foreign and time for participant interaction.

Ma’s extends an invitation to specialists from food and related industries, agro businesses, farming enterprises and entrepreneurs who are focusing on sustainable and ethical business to register for the program. 

The program is by invitation only and is a limited participation event on a first come basis. Those interested can register by contacting Nadeera through the Ma’s general line +94117602200 or [email protected] on or before 22 July.