Thursday, 13 March 2014 00:00
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Sadaharitha Plantations Ltd. has started a program to popularise the cultivation of Agarwood as a home garden plant to strengthen the economy of the country.
In a statement, the company said it has established a state of the art nursery to cultivate Aquilaria trees, which is used to produce Agarwood as the first step to popularise this as a garden plant.
The nursery established in Ingiriya, spanning five acres, house 250,000 Agarwood plants. The nursery operations include importing highest standard Agarwood seeds from Asia Pacific countries, cultivating them and nurturing them up to the point of handing them over to the customer and the nursery is undoubtedly the largest nursery in Asia.
Another unique feature of the nursery in Ingiriya is its ability to maintain a buffer stock of 500,000 plants at any given time. The nursery employees are highly trained according to international standards in commercial nursery management. The Agarwood plants are produced in Vietnam and the seeds are imported to Sri Lanka after being certified and approved by the State Agriculture Department of Vietnam.
The staff in the nursery are well trained in all aspects of nursery management to manage these plants from infancy stage up to the stage it can be handed over to the customer for cultivation. Apart from its own staff, the company from time to time employs services of both foreign and local experts in commercial plantation management to advise their staff.
Sadaharitha Plantations Company, which started its operations 11 years ago, utilised all its expertise in the field of commercial forestry management to introduce the Agarwood cultivation to the wet and intermediate zones.
The patent rights to produce Agarwood during a short time period has been obtained by the University of Minnesota, and Sadaharitha Plantations receives the fullest cooperation and the technical guidance from the university. The company has obtained all the approvals from the National Plant Quarantine Service under the Agriculture Ministry and the Central Environmental Authority in all its commercial forestry management projects including Agarwood, Teak and Sandalwood. The sustainability of these projects also has been certified by the ISO 14001 award.
The company’s statement said Agarwood is a highly valuable compound, black and dark brown in colour, which is produced inside Aquilaria tress. This compound has a huge demand from Middle Eastern countries and currently largest exporters are Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. These countries have adopted the outgrow model to cultivate Agarwood which has provided a substantial boost to the rural economies. Agarwood is used in production of premium fragrances, in religious fragrances used by Muslims and as a medication for some aliments, therefore fetching approximately between $ 2,000-10,000 per kilogram in the international markets.
The company said the most productive districts for Agarwood cultivation are Kalutara,Colombo, Gampaha, Galle, Matara, Ratnapura, Kandy and Kegalle. The cultivation has already been approved by the Wildlife and Environment Conservation Ministry and Central Environment Authority. The company is having constant discussions with the government authorities to make this cultivation sustainable and environmental friendly; as well as to generate income for the rural population.
The Sadaharitha Group of Companies includes Sadaharitha Water Management Ltd., Sadaharitha Agro Forestry Exports Ltd., Sadaharitha Marketing Ltd., Sadaharitha Property Developments Ltd., Asia Tea Ltd. and Three Six Merchants Ltd., apart from its flagship company Sadaharitha Plantations Ltd.
