Sri Lanka based Farms’ Pride (Pvt) Ltd, has exported 30 metric tonnes of frozen chicken to Oman breaking into the poultry market in the Middle Eastern nation, following trade links facilitated by the island’s embassy in Muscat.
“A new market is being opened to a new Sri Lankan export product first time in the GCC region,” Sri Lanka Ambassador to Oman Ameer Ajwad said in a statement.
“It is a big breakthrough.”
Farm’s Pride Ltd had participated in a business meeting organized by the embassy and Sri Lanka Export Development Board as part of a Economic Diplomacy program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in October 2019 to meet buyers.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Sultanate of Oman had later issued a license to approve the import of chicken from Sri Lanka.
“There is a huge potential for Sri Lankan food products in the region and this initiative has opened up a new chapter for the exports of Sri Lankan poultry products to the region,” Flynn M V de Lima, Managing Director of Al Hamadi Trading & Cont LLC, the Omani buyer was quoted as saying.
BPOS Global LLC is the agent in Oman for Farms Pride.
“This is the first time in the history that a Sri Lankan meat product enters the GCC market in such a big quantity in commercial terms,” BPOS Global Chief Executive Anselm Perera said.
Ambassador Ajwad said the head of Farm’s Pride, Al Hamadi Trading and BPOS Global had worked hard during the Covid-19 epidemic overcoming challenges to make the shipments.
The export of poultry comes as Sri Lanka’s domestic consumption has been hit by Coronavirus curfews. However Sri Lanka has made strong progress in combating the virus and is opening the economy.
Industry analysts have said though Sri Lanka has the potential to export poultry products, import controls on maize had kept prices artificially high in the island hurting competitiveness.