With demand rising and government plans to import chicken to meet a seasonal shortage this month, Sri Lanka’s Bairaha Farms announced this week that the company is setting up a state-of-the-art broiler (chicken) farm on 48 acres at Anamaduwa in the Puttalam district.
The farm will be created in line with international farms and standards. “The size of each poultry house will be much bigger, and the specifications of these buildings will be technically more advanced to enable us to maintain outstanding hygiene and cleanliness than possible with farms currently operating in Sri Lanka,” Yakooth Naleem, Bairaha Managing Director said in the statement.
The government, which is allowing the import of chicken to meet a shortage in the market this December season, has urged chicken producers to substantially increase production owing to an expected rise in consumption with per capita incomes seen doublingin the next few years. Increasing tourism numbers – this year expected to easily go over 600,000 arrivals – and a target of 2.5 million tourists in 2016 is putting pressure on chicken producers to increase supply.
In a filing at the Colombo Stock Exchange, Bairaha – a pioneer chicken producer – said it signed an agreement with the Board of Investment (BOI) to give effect to this proposal.
The project, to be set-up under a new company subsidiary called Nature’s Best Industry Ltd, will enjoy a 10-year tax holiday from the first year of making profits.
The expected investment in the first year is Rs 120 million with the total, additional investment in the second and third year being Rs 240 million. “We expect this will increase our commercial broiler production by 20 % in the first year, 20 % in the second year and 15 % in the third year,” Mr Naleem said in the statement. The first batch of chickens from this farm will be ready by April/May 2011. |
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