Business
Bolstering the rural economy through jobs in poultry production
For almost 50 years now, Sri Lanka’s leading and favourite poultry producer Crysbro, while enriching the nation with its highly nutritional and fresh products, has been working towards supporting and empowering its workforce in every stage to drive the eradication of poverty faced mainly by residents in rural regions.
The producer introduced the now renowned ‘Diri Saviya’ scheme, setting the foundation for lending a helping hand to 250 farmer families in the Uva, North-Central, and Central provinces of Sri Lanka, with the setting up of their own independent poultry farms.
With the support of Crysbro, local farmers are prepared to contribute to the country’s economy, given the necessary supports of expert training, high-quality chicks from Crysbro’s own hatcheries, and quality feed produced in the in-house feed mill, to guarantee that every step is carefully attended for uniformity and quality.
“Having grown exponentially over the past few decades, Crysbro has now come to a position where the economic and social contributions by the company are now a larger requirement and expectation. This increased responsibility led us to extend the company’s ethos well beyond business as usual to include the welfare of the numerous farming communities that form an integral support structure for the entire poultry industry,” noted Crysbro Senior Marketing Manager Amores Sellar.
Inevitably, this strategy has given way to identifying the most crucial aspect of this objective: Its vital support framework for the entire local farming community.
For example, a vital aspect of its efforts within this sphere includes its close cooperation with chicken farmers. These farmers, through outgrower schemes, are contracted to raise chickens for Crysbro. The way this partnership works is Crysbro provides these farmers with the necessary chickens, veterinary support, feed and technical assistance while the outgrowers oversee the daily care of the chickens.
This mutually beneficial relationship has empowered several farming families from across the country by offering them a steady and viable source of income while allowing their farms to continue functioning independently. Crysbro’s involvement with these contract growers also significantly mitigates the financial risk these farmers would typically shoulder if they raised chickens without the company’s assistance.
Another example is Crysbro constantly and consistently assisting and fostering close ties with farmers who provide the maize required to feed the chickens that the group supplies to local grocers, supermarkets and restaurants. Last year alone, Crysbro’s subsidiary bolstered the rural economy by spending over Rs.1 billion to purchase maize from over 1,200 farmers in regions such as Monaragala, Mahiyanganaya and Anuradhapura.
In addition, Crysbro’s feed mill allows farmers to engage in direct selling. This entirely erases their reliance on a mediating middleman and ensures that they are paid after the collection of stocks.
Ultimately, Crysbro’s ties to farmers enable it to deliver on its overarching commitment of creating healthy citizens within a healthy economy.
This is represented by its leading role within the poultry industry, whose short- and long-term benefits to the economy are immense. The industry is among the country’s highest agricultural revenue generators along with its most disciplined, structured and consistent taxpayer.
Ceylinco Life’s Ambalantota branch agent AIP Manjula has been named one of three global finalists for the prestigious Insurance Agent of the Year award at the 11th Asia Trusted Life Agents & Advisers Awards (ATLAA) 2026.
The recognition places a Sri Lankan insurance professional among the finalists in a regional field spanning South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia and the wider Asia-Pacific region.
Ceylinco Life said the achievement reflected the calibre and customer-focused approach of its agency force, while recognising Manjula’s professionalism and commitment to policyholders.
The award evaluates insurance agents on criteria extending beyond sales performance, including ethical conduct, client service, policy persistency, digital adoption, innovative practices and contributions to the insurance industry and community.
The awards are organised by Asia Advisers Network and Asia Insurance Review, with LIMRA as co-organiser. An independent judging and balloting process is monitored by KPMG as the official scrutineer. The judging panel comprises senior insurance executives, association presidents and industry experts from across the Asia-Pacific region.
CEAT Kelani Holdings (CKH) has retained its National Long-Term Rating of ‘AA+(lka)’ with a Stable Outlook from Fitch Ratings for the sixth consecutive year, reflecting the company’s financial resilience and leading position in Sri Lanka’s pneumatic tyre market.
The ‘AA+(lka)’ rating, the second-highest on Fitch’s national scale, indicates a very strong capacity to meet financial commitments.
Fitch said CKH’s established market leadership and resilient financial profile remained key strengths, while noting its exposure to price-sensitive, cyclical and highly competitive markets.
The Stable Outlook reflects expectations that the company will maintain its market position despite rising input costs and increasing competition from imported tyres, while preserving adequate credit metrics during periods of weaker earnings and higher investment.
Fitch expects CKH’s established brand, extensive dealer network and adaptive pricing strategies to support its market position. Planned production facility upgrades are also expected to improve product quality, particularly in the radial tyre segment.
The rating agency expects near-term pressure on margins from higher raw material and energy costs but said the company’s low leverage and sound liquidity would provide a cushion.
CKH Chairman Chanaka De Silva said the rating reinforced the company’s focus on disciplined financial management, operational adaptability and long-term investment.
SLT-MOBITEL Enterprise, the enterprise services arm of Sri Lanka Telecom PLC, has launched its Premium Cloud service powered by Nutanix, aimed at helping Sri Lankan businesses modernise their IT infrastructure and accelerate digital transformation.
The service was unveiled at the Lanka Tech Summit 2026 held recently at ITC Ratnadipa, Colombo.
The Premium Cloud combines hybrid multi-cloud capabilities with enterprise-grade performance, enabling businesses to run mission-critical workloads, scale cloud deployments and strengthen business continuity through disaster recovery capabilities.
Hosted on SLT-MOBITEL’s Tier III data centre infrastructure, the platform is designed to provide enhanced security, reliability and flexibility while supporting the growing technology requirements of enterprises.
SLT-MOBITEL Enterprise said the platform would also support organisations seeking to adopt AI-ready capabilities and improve the management and performance of IT workloads.
A key feature of the launch was SLT-MOBITEL Enterprise joining the Nutanix Elevate Service Provider Program (NESPP), which the company said made it the first service provider in the region to join the programme.
Powered by Nutanix’s hybrid multicloud platform, the service enables application and data mobility across on-premises environments, public clouds and edge locations.
The company said the partnership combined Nutanix’s cloud technology with SLT-MOBITEL’s local expertise and support, strengthening its multi-cloud portfolio.
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