In a concerted attempt to secure the country’s food security agenda, Sri Lanka’s leading poultry company CRYSBRO recently invested Rs. 2 billion to purchase maize produced during the annual Yala cultivation season.
The harvest of over 2000 maize farmers located across several rural districts were purchased as a part of the company’s vision to secure the livelihoods of these communities in the country. This initiative is aimed at securing a fair income for local maize farmers in Moneragala, Mahiyanganaya and Anuradhapura and save a significant amount of foreign exchange spent on the import of the crop.
“Generally in Sri Lanka, maize farmers are forced to sell their produce through intermediaries and wait weeks to earn a relatively small income for their harvest. As a responsible corporate citizen that has always been dedicated to improving the lives of these essential yet disadvantaged sects of our society, we introduced a lucrative buy back scheme to ensure that these farmers are paid fairly and immediately at wholesale prices for their toil and hard work invested across months to grow these crops,” said CRYSBRO Senior Marketing Manager, Amores Sellar.
“All maize brought this way helps CRYSBRO speed up our production processes and do so with raw material of the highest quality. This is a step towards empowering the farming community in the country and an attempt to revive and empower communities who add so much value to our economy and lives,” he also said.
Maize procured directly from the farmers are first weighed as wet weight, tested for quality and mechanically dried. Producers are then paid for the dry weight of their crop at lucrative whole sale prices. All payments are credited to their bank accounts on the very day they are purchased.
Operating as a joint venture with Fortune Agro, a CRYSBRO Group Company, a mega warehouse complex has been set up in Siyambalanduwa, Moneragala District capable of storing over 16,000 metric tons of maize in the four cylindrical grain warehouses.
This is the currently the largest maize warehouse established in the country and is operated according to the highest quality standards. CRYSBRO recently made an investment of Rs. 500 million to renovate this complex, which was built to store both wet and dry maize.
CRYSBRO:
Established in 1972 with just 100 chicks and a deep desire to be a market leader in quality and innovation, CRYSBRO has emerged as Sri Lanka’s first and most sophisticated, fully vertically-integrated poultry producer. Its operations span grandparent and parent farms, hatcheries, broiler farms and feed mills. This thriving ‘Farm-to-Fork’ concept has formed the core of its success. In turn, it has yielded unprecedented benefit for numerous stakeholders including direct and indirect employees, outgrowers, domestic maize farmers and ultimately Sri Lankan consumers. These local links have immeasurably aided domestic production and led to a reduction in reliance on imported poultry products.
