Sadaharitha Plantations to promote Agarwood cultivation in Ingiriya

Sri Lanka, Daily News 22 Jan 2014….
One of Sri Lanka’s leading commercial forestry companies Sadaharitha Plantations Limited, which is in the process of promoting Agarwood cultivation has set up the largest nursery in the world at Ingiriya that could accommodate one million plants.

“The company plan is to be one of the leading Agarwood exporters by 2022 in the world and the company has signed a forward selling agreement with a Western Australian company Wescorp, the largest producer of Sandalwood and Agarwood in the world,” its Chairman and Managing Director Sathis Nawarathna said.

He said that Saddhartha Plantations is now involved in research on the tree with government patronage.Therefore the Treasury has provided Rs 11.5 million through the National Research Council to conduct research on this tree for a three year period to promote this on a commercial basis.

The company is in the process of propagating Agar wood cultivation in Sri Lanka under an out-grower model, which was a very successful project to draw high levels of foreign exchange to the country, Nawarathna said.

He said that at present there are more than 20,000 investors registered with Sadaharitha Plantations and more than 2000 acres of land that has been cultivated with Teak, sandalwood, Rambutan and their latest plant is Agarwood.

The company’s main objective is to protect the environment by promoting commercial forestry. Therefore, they only select the barren lands for their projects, which consists Agar wood cultivation under the “Divi Neguma” scheme, he said.

Sadaharitha Plantation Limited has managed to maintain its market leadership position in this investment category for the past ten years by delivering their promise to the customers year on year in the form of benefits rewards and return in investments, he said.

Speaking on the company’s plans and performance its Chief Executive Director, H.K. Rohana said that their commercial plantations are managed international standards and feasible for the Sri Lankan environment.

“Investors for these plantation would be able to fetch a premium prices in the global market in the future.”

“Any prospective investor could invest for a ten perch to one acre and above land plots and the company will guarantee the return on investment for a tree for a minimum of Rs 25,000, after eight years of maturity. (for an Agarwood tree.)

“For Sandalwood tree it takes three to four years for maturity and for Teak tree it is seven years to mature. Both of them are guaranteed of high return on investments,” he added.

The company started in 12 years ago embarked on a project to promote a green economy in Sri Lanka by way of encouraging investments in commercial forestry. “Today all of our lands have obtained the ISO 14001 quality certification and it is the first and the only company in this category in Sri Lanka to receive this prestigious certification,” he added.