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concluded National Chamber of Exporters Export Awards 2012.
Jiffy International AS is a transnational company which is engaged in the manufacturing and distribution of plant propagation substrate, substrate systems and related horticultural products across the globe spanning over a period of 60 years. Jiffy Products Sri Lanka started its operations at the Mirigama Export Processing Zone as a Board of Investment Sri Lanka project.
Speaking about winning this award JPSL Managing Director Sandeeptha Gamalath said: “We are delighted and honoured to receive the Gold award for the Agriculture Value Added - Large sector from National Chamber of Exporters Export Awards 2012, in recognition of our export performance in 2012. Jiffy Products SL has been winning export awards from the chamber since 2009 and this year we bagged the pinnacle award in our sector. This is a fitting accolade for us as we celebrate our 10th year of operations in Sri Lanka.”
Since 2009 JPSL has been constantly picking up accolades in the Agriculture Value Added sector but 2012 marked the first time the company won Gold. In 2009 the company won Silver in the Extra Large Category, while in 2010 JPSL won Silver in the Medium Category. At last year’s awards the company walked away with the Bronze award in the Large Category.
The company has always placed a high focus on quality and as such has obtained several quality standard certifications to this effect. The company has in place ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System, ISO 14001:2004 Environment Management System, ISO 18001:2007 Occupational Health and Safety Management System, OMRI Organic Material Review Institute Certificate and the RHP quality mark by the European Certification Institute for the Agricultural Sector (ECAS BV).
In 2004 JPSL started its first commercial operations with two Jiffy-7 machines and today has grown to eight Jiffy-7 machines with a production capacity of 180 million Jiffy-7C pellets. Currently JPSL has over 120 permanent employees and about 400 casual employees. Its total investment in Sri Lanka stands at approximately Rs. 1.3 billion as at today.
In addition to its operations in Mirigama, in 2006 JPSL started its own coir fibre pith processing plant at Pannala and in 2009 opened an Engineering Center of Excellence which would cater the requirements of the entire Jiffy group in providing engineering services to upgrade and maintain the Jiffy Group’s core competence in the product lines.
Later in 2010 JPSL expanded its coir substrate production capacity by constructing a state-of-the-art coir substrate processing plant in Kobeigane in the Kurunegala District. With this increase in substrate capacity JPSL ventured into other coir substrate product lines such as Jiffy Grow Blocks, Jiffy Coco Discs and Jiffy Grow Bags.
The company has also contributed a lot to the Sri Lankan agriculture sector with multiple extension programs in association with several government, non-government and private sector institutions.
Some of these projects include maintaining the county’s most successful plantation for hybrid seed coconut with the collaboration of the Sri Lanka Coconut Research Institute where there is coconut cultivation with several new hybrid coconut varieties in the fruiting stage and introducing the Jiffy 7C pellet for the propagation of planting material through the latest plant propagation technologies to the local farming sector.
The company also has a model plant house and a model plantation spread over 35 acres of land to demonstrate how better growers can utilise farm lands for agriculture and what cost effective methods they can use to maximise their production.
Jiffy Products Sri Lanka (JPSL) was incorporated in 2003 as a BOI venture with the intention of taking advantage of the availability of coir fibre pith which was gaining popularity all over the world as a well versatile plant propagation and growth media.
JPSL pumps over Rs. 500 million to the rural economy in terms of raw material purchases and employment (Rs. 350 million for raw material purchases from fiber mills and village level suppliers and Rs. 150 million for employment) and further Rs. 100 million to the service sector of Sri Lanka.
The company’s core strategy is to add value to the raw material (coir fibre pith and husk chips) rather than exporting this valuable resource as unprocessed bulk material.
