newSRILANKA Team External Links 16 July 2009 429 views No Comment  Print This Post  Email This Post

Ten professional fish breeding companies sponsored by the Export Development Board (EDB) for this year Aquarama exhibition in Singapore has won 19 awards for various fish oriented products.

Speaking at a media conference held on Tuesday Export Development and International Trade Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris said that Government identified the ornamental fish industry as a ‘Thrust Industry’, which could reach USD 1 billion of export earnings annually.

Minister noted that the new creativity oriented policy in the export sector has open up new avenues to perform local industrialists to compete in the international markets. “It is glad to see our local entrepreneurs’ achievements at the Aquarama International fish competition” said Prof. G. L. Peiris adding that the tremendous success in the competition is a global recognition that add value to further promote local ornamental fish industry.

Expressing his views on the future development of ornamental fish industry President of Sri Lanka Fish Exporters Association (SLFEA) Sathyendra Wijayapura said that there is need to add more value to ornamental fish exporters to target international markets. “In order to achieve export earnings worth of one billion US dollars we need improve our quality and add new varieties of ornamental fish to present exports.” said Mr. Wijayapura. He stressed that local ornamental fish industry had performed relatively well although it had undergone certain effects that resulted from global financial downturn. He said that Aquarium fish sector is making a significant contribution by way of employment and income generation for the rural community. “Our industry’s export earnings are distributed among a vast community including the rural sector. It is one of the industries which provide employment opportunities mostly to people with low income levels and low education qualifications”.

Read more at Dailymirror

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