New Samaposha factory ready to fight growing malnutrition in SAARC region

The newly completed state-of-the-art Samaposha factory of Plenty Foods (Pvt) Ltd. was ceremonially opened by Deputy Chairman of Ceylon Biscuits Limited (CBL) Ramya Wickramasingha, amidst a large gathering of Government officials, university professors and well-wishers recently, in Pallekele.

A subsidiary of CBL, Plenty Foods is the manufacturer of Samaposha, a brand that revolutionised the food industry by becoming the first locally processed high nutrition cereal for children and adults.

Plenty Foods is an agro-based entity that is committed to produce a range of high quality nutritious food products using locally grown agricultural produce, at affordable prices ensuring customer satisfaction and acceptability through maximum utilisation of the company’s dry-zone farmer base.

The Pallekele factory is the central processing unit where the agricultural produce such as green gram, soya, rice and corn grown by more than 12,000 dry-zone farmers are processed to produce healthy food with high nutrition.

This is a factory considered to be the first-of-its-kind in Sri Lanka, where the entire production process, commencing from the processing of raw materials to packaging of finished products, is done entirely by an automated process to ensure high quality level and maintain international health and safety standards.

Speaking at the ceremony, an industry expert said: “With the global economy still experiencing the effects of recession and with much speculation about an impending universal food crisis, as a nation with immense potential for agricultural development, Sri Lanka should focus on researching and developing intelligent agricultural solutions to prevent our country falling prey to these global tribulations. In this context the commitment and the dedication shown by the management and the staff, both in developing wholesome food products and supporting the sustenance of the farmer community of this country is commendable.”

Managing Director Plenty Foods said: “The peak performance of this factory will hopefully revolutionise the agro-based food processing industry in Sri Lanka, making our country a key supplier of high nutrition foods to the SAARC countries, exploring the export market leading to eradication the raging malnutrition problem in the region. In addition, the factory will bring in multiple benefits to the country, such as maximum utilisation of agri land, enhanced income for farmers and, foreign exchange earnings.”

He also stated that plans were underway to introduce new appropriate production methods to maximise the capacity utilisation, where the monthly production of Samaposha alone will be increased beyond 1,200 metric tonnes.

Plenty Foods has a very strong backward integration programme with its 15,000 islandwide farmer base, in support of a CSR programme where the company has entered into Forward Sales Contracts to purchase their agricultural produce. This has ensured an uninterrupted supply of agri inputs to the factory, which is beneficial to the Sri Lankan farmer community.

The new Plenty Foods factory is built on a two-acre land supporting an energy efficient, low cost processing system, where most of the production functions are carried out using gravity and airflow. About 450 employees are attached to Plenty Foods factory and employed in high tech production and packaging techniques. All of them have been recruited from neighbouring villages.

A company spokesman stated that with its peak performance, the factory will manufacture 40-50 million packets of Samaposha annually and plans are underway to introduce new products to the existing product portfolio. In addition the cultivation area will be increased to 12,500 acres among the dry zone farmer community to support the new business development and expansion plans during the next two years.