“Ma’s Foods Celebrates 30 years of bringing happiness to Sri Lankans”
Founded three decades ago Ma’s has grown into Sri Lanka’s leading family meal solutions provider. Along with a reputation of offering only the highest quality processed and ready to eat foods for the local & export market, this family owned company has a proven commitment to the communities they work in.
Over the last 10 years they have been introducing more certified ethically produced & sustainable products and as a result, MA’S Kitchen has further backward integrated with small farmer groups from around Sri Lanka who are organic & Fairtrade certified.
“Being ‘organic and fair’ goes beyond just producing food under certified standards. For a family of social entrepreneurs, it means a much larger and lifelong commitment to society and nature. This is the principle we believed in when founding the company and now we are passing this legacy on to the next generation” said Mario Alwis, Managing Director Ma’s Kitchen. “We have been privileged to live and work among different rural farmer communities in Dambulla, Matale, Minuangoda, Hakmana and now at our latest project Lyakkachchi in the north.”
In line with the company’s founding philosophy of sustainability beyond its own business and supply chain, the company has been a driving force behind shaping food processing and agribusiness in Sri Lanka. MA’s has been a founding member of both the Sri Lanka Food Processors Association and the National Agribusiness Council. As a gift to the fraternity on its 30th anniversary the company conducted a workshop on “The Sustainable Food Business” on the 26th of July. The event focused and facilitated discussions on a wide range of topics with specialist presenters from many parts of the world. The event focused on educating and sharing knowledge with a wide audience representing the private sector, NGO’s as well as government departments.
The event focused on four major topics covering ‘The Global Organic Market’ which a discussion on the global organic food situation and its current trends & opportunities lead by the founder of Europe’s pioneering and most successful organic trading company, Mr. PoppeBraam from Do-IT In Netherlands. The discussion on ‘The Global Fairtrade Market’was led by the product manager for Europe’s oldest Fairtrade company, Mr. Martin Boon from Fair Trade Original in Netherlands. The third topic ‘Community Business’was led by leading social entrepreneur and Chairman of Japans best known ethical business group Mr. Katoka from Press Alternative in japan, whose work has rejuvenated Japanese ethical trade by setting up Incubators for young social entrepreneurs around Japan. The final discussion panel on “The value of Social Compliance to the modern food business’was led by a partner of one of India’s well know social equity funds Mr. Sanchayan Chakraborty from the Aavishkarr Frontier Fund in India, which is specialized in investing in ethical and sustainable business in South and South east Asia. All discussions will consist of short presentations and then a panel discussion with expert panelist both local and foreign and time for participant interaction.
