Sri Lanka draws foreign investment for fish canning

31st July 2009, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Sri Lanka has attracted foreign investment to set up a fish processing and canning plant near the southern port city of Galle, Media Minister Anura Yapa said.

The plant, on a 13-acre site, will be a joint venture with a local collaborator, he told a news conference.

Production in the first year will be 30 million cans, going up to 44 million in the second year and 57 million cans in the third year, Yapa said.

Ten percent of output is to be sold in the local market and the rest exported.

A government statement said the estimated cost of the project, a joint venture between the state-owned Ceylon Fisheries Corporation and Spirit Wind Ltd of New Zealand, is 50 million dollars.

The island's is attracting increasing investments with the end of the war, when government forces defeated the Tamil Tigers in May.

The government is keen to promote fisheries in an effort to exploit the ocean resources surrounding the island.

Restrictions on fishing imposed during the war, to prevent the Tigers taking cover behind fishermen for attacks, have been mostly lifted and the fish catch has increased.