After 20 years in business, Nelna group of companies is targeting to achieve an annual production of 10 million fruits by the year 2022 becoming the leading supplier of best quality mangoes in the Sri Lankan market.
The company’s agricultural arm Nelna Agri Development (Pvt.) Ltd, has cultivated 60,000 mango plants following the global good agricultural practices (GGAP), in 650 acres in the Ratnapura and Monaragala Districts and 80,000 mango plants in a 500 acre farm in the Amapara district.
A new fruit processing factory will be set up in the Ampara and in the Kurunegala district with an investment of Rs. 1billion with foreign assistance, Chairman of the company W. E. G Nanayakkara said.
Nelna is laying the groundwork for it by investing Rs 1 billion in cutting-edge machinery, technology and infrastructure in preparation for the commercial production of fresh and processed mangoes on a large scale
Nelna Mango is one of the world’s biggest, juiciest mango producer and is unique to Sri Lanka. The average weight of a fruit is approximately 600g.
The first generation of this verity was introduced to Sri Lanka from Australia in 1980s and subsequently developed in Sri Lanka to create this unique mango.
Nelna Mango is a beautiful golden orange fruit with an unblemished skin. It has excellent sweet flavor, low fiber content and silky smooth flesh.
The fruit ripens slowly giving time for the produce to reach international market destinations.
Carefully selected fruits adhering to uniform quality grade 1 fruit standards will be exported as fresh produce to the Middle East, Europe and Singapore under the brand name ‘Nelna Mangoes.’
The company is confident that the sweetness levels of the fruits are above the international standard in grading (known as the Brix level). The international Brix level for mango sweetness is 11 to 14 percent.
Nelna is yet to export mangoes to countries such as Japan, China and Korea owing to restriction placed on quarantine procedure.
Discussions are underway with the Agricultural Ministry for the importation of the state of the art quarantine machine enabling the company to export mangoes even to countries like Australia and the New Zealand.
(LI)