Source: Colombo Page
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday declared open the first ever semi-government owned fish canning factory at the Fisheries Corporation premises in Galle in Southern Province.
The cannery, built at a cost of 840 million rupees, is a joint venture of Ceylon Fisheries Corporation (CFC) and Happy Cook Lanka Food Pvt Ltd.
Initially, the factory is expected to produce only a small volume of 10,000 cans per day. The CFC plans to double the daily production capacity later. The fish cans will be marketed under the name “Cey Fishâ€. The cannery will be fully focused on local consumption and not at exports.
In addition to the Galle Fish Canning Factory, two more fish canning factories will be established in Peliyagoda and Mundalama as soon as possible, Minister of Fisheries Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said.
On average Sri Lankans consume around 50,000 fish cans per day and the government spends over Rs. 4 billion annually for canned fish imports.
The government expects to produce 40,000 fish cans per day by the three factories and curtail the imports at least by 30 percent.
Chairman of the Ceylon Fisheries Corporation Maheel Senarathna and Chairman of Happy Cook Lanka L. D. Pathirage also participated in the event.
