Plenty Foods rewarded for upgrading Sri Lanka’s nutritional status

Plenty Foods (Pvt) Limited, a subsidiary of Ceylon Biscuits Limited (CBL) won the Silver Award in the Food Category at the recently concluded Farmer Awards and Ag Biz Awards ‘10 ceremony, that was conducted concurrent to the Pro-Foods ‘10 exhibition.

Plenty Foods was recognised for its industrious and untiring efforts to promote food products with high nutrition and high protein content, among Sri Lankan population. In addition to the contribution made towards the locally grown agricultural produce, a special reference was made on the farmer backward integration programme spearheaded by Plenty Foods in order to purchase raw material from farmers in the dry zone.

Mohan Ratwatte, Managing Director/CEO of Plenty Foods discussing about the operation said, “Plenty Foods has come a long way in popularising innovative food products that cater to the nutritional needs of the masses. We succeeded in introducing products of high nutritional value with an acceptable palatability for consumers of all ages that have caught up well in the local as well as the global market.”

Plenty Foods has an extensive research & development unit and recently they have been successful in introducing an instant non-dairy ice cream to support the ice cream parlours that operate instant ice cream machines. “We came up with this solution as some consumers are unable to digest dairy products and we wanted to fill-in this gap in the market,” Ratwatte added.

Plenty Foods sources its requirement of raw material such as Green Gram, Soya, Rice and Corn through their 15,000 plus farmer base located in the dry zone. These farmers have entered into a forward contract scheme, where Plenty Foods has guaranteed to purchase their raw material at above market prices.

The Government of Sri Lanka giving due recognition to the contribution made by  Plenty Foods for the local agri sector, has supported all its endeavours through the Industrial Technological Institute and Peradeniya University’s Agriculture Research Department.  

Plenty Foods has a growing export market and operates through the export division of CBL to familiarise its products such as Samaposha, On The Go and Samayuu, its herbal porridge range.

Galvanising its business structure into a more complete one, Plenty Foods has ventured out into supporting their farmers through a well planned CSR programme that is being supported by the Group.