Lankan exporters seek co-branding with Nafed

The Sri Lankan vanaspati industry has proposed for co-branding of vanaspati with the National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation (Nafed).

"We want the imported vanaspati to be co-branded with Nafed so that our brand identity is maintained," said a Sri Lankan vanaspati manufacturer.

At present, ten vanaspati companies are operating in Sri Lanka, each with an annual capacity of about 25,000 tonne. After the June 4 vanaspati canalisation, Nafed planned to market the vanaspati under its own brand. Earlier, these ten firms used to export vanaspati under their own brands.

The companies set up in the last two years to export duty-free vanaspati to India under the 1998 Free Trade Agreement include Pyramid Lanka, Paras Industries, Accour Industries, Royal Exports, Rare Industries, Bhaskar Global Industries, Adamjee Extraction, Continental Vanaspati Industries, Health Food Company, NMK Products.

According to official sources, Nafed has not objected to the proposal. However, the commerce ministry and the DGFT and Sri Lankan Trade, are still working on the modalities expected to be in place by next week.