Serendib Horticulture hosts seminar to advocate policy on Horticulture

Serendib Horticulture Technologies , a leading company in plant biotechnology celebrated 23 years in plant business with a policy disucssion titled, “FLORICULTURE INDUSTRY TAKING THE NATION FORWARD“. Guest speakers came from the Export development board, Ministry of Finance, Sri Lanka Council for Agriculture Research, National Botanical Gardens and University of Peradeniya.

Chairman of Serendib Horticulture , Mr Dilip de Silva, elaborated the history of the company, starting from small production capacity to the present capacity of 2,500,000 plants per year through tissue culture which is marketed throughout the world. Netherlands, Australia , USA , Korea has been the companies biggest markets.

After completing successful overseas ventures in Qatar, Iran and Rwanda during the past 10 years, Serendib Horticulture has commenced another project in Rwanda for the production of fruit plants and vegetable seeds.

The main emphasis of the seminar was to make the government recognize the floriculture sector as a key sector that could be developed to double its turnover of US$ 16 million at present, to US$ 32 million within the next three years. This would increase the revenue for the government as well as creating employment in the rural areas of Sri Lanka.

It is important for the government to facilitate the expansion of this industry through its embassies overseas and recognizing the sector as a key driver in contributing to overcome the present economic crisis the country is facing today, said Mr De Silva

The government should work closely with the Floriculture sector in attracting potential overseas investors to the country. Several countries in the same latitude as Sri Lanka, with similar environmental conditions have attracted many investors through government interventions. Mr Dilip de Silva re-iterated that the foreign exchange earnings could be increased many folds, if there is good synergy between the policy makers and the industry.

The officials present at the seminar agreed to make the National Floriculture Committee to become the conduit between the industry and the government, to resolve industrial issues and to implement the Floriculture Strategic Plan, which was presented to the Director General National Planning, Ministry of Finance.

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