The 10th Cargills “Village to Home” program was successfully conducted on February 26 and 27 at Kadawatha-3 Cargills FoodCity. The 10th program featured an exciting range of products ranging from Ayurvedic beauty products, coconut oil and coconut products, aloe vera jelly and desserts, from sugar cane, from coconut and reed (pan) products to fluff, etc.

The products offered as well as the event were well received by customers. The recently introduced Lanka QR payment facility was also available for consumers to make cashless payments, providing additional convenience. The National Enterprise Development Authority (NEDA), the Small Enterprises Development Division (SED), the Ministry of Cane, Brass, Clay, Furniture, and Rural Industry Promotion and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce assisted Cargills in the selection of SMEs.

The pandemic has posed many challenges to farming communities and SMEs across Sri Lanka. Among the challenges was the lack of market access. In this context, the Cargills “Village to Home” program was launched with the aim of solving this problem and supporting small and medium entrepreneurs in the country by providing them with a platform to engage with a larger network of customers. .

The program is a monthly trade show at the premises of Cargills FoodCity, which started at the end of 2020, for selected SMEs with delimited booths to sell their products directly to customers. Cargills covers all expenses related to this program, including the cost of booths, utilities and marketing. To date, more than 90 SMEs have participated in the program.

In addition to an additional market and source of income, Cargills also provides technical support to SMEs in terms of packaging, labeling and quality assurance, while Cargills Bank provides financing through low-cost loan programs. SMEs also have the opportunity to register their products with Cargills, while the program has also been able to open up markets beyond Sri Lanka for some SMEs. Cargills is committed to helping entrepreneurs contribute to national development.

Cargills has been supporting farming communities and SMEs in Sri Lanka for more than 20 years since the company established its network of outgrowers in 1999. Cargills’ community development program puts both dairy and agricultural producers together that local SMEs are at the heart of it.