Sri Lanka Expolanka upgrades lentils plant

June 07, 2011 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Expolanka Holdings group said a lentils splitting plant owned by a subsidiary has been fully automated in a 350,000 US dollar upgrade designed to meet increasing local and international demand.





The upgrade of the plant, located in Wellampitiya in Colombo, included the addition of a colour sorting machine with a capacity of 200 metric tonnes a day.

Expolanka Commodities, which owns the plant, is a big importer of red lentils in the country, and also one of the largest importers of sugar.

It also imports agricultural commodities like dates, onions, garlic, coriander, dried fish, canned fish and wheat flour.

The demand, both locally and globally has been huge which led us to decide to upgrade the lentils splitting plant," said Azmy Mohideen, Expolanka Commodities chief operating officer.

The plant produces red split and whole processed lentils as well as yellow lentils with raw materials imported from Australia and Canada.

Mohideen said the company plans to add more production lines at the lentils splitting plant in the second phase of the expansion.