Are entrepreneurs born or made? A topic of intense international debate, yet to be resolved.
For Sarath Kithsiri, a seafood exporter, who hails from the coastal town of Arachchikattuwa, in the Chilaw District, there is little doubt that entrepreneurship is in his very DNA!
Born into a working-class family, Kithsiri’s mind was keenly focused on entrepreneurship from his early youth in preference to more academic pursuits. After completing school, 19-year-old Kithsiri left for Italy, the mecca for Christian youth in search of overseas employment. He spent six years in Italy, building up a small capital to start his own business back in his homeland but Kithsiri had no desire to join the labour force of his own country. As a young man with a modest capital in hand, Kithsiri surveyed the fishing landscape of his hometown and district for an affordable opportunity to begin his business.
The opportunity came through a synergy in importing prawn feed to supply a shortfall in the market, during the recent series of economic crises the country faced.
Starting from ground zero, Kithsiri built his fishing business and exports with remarkably unwavering entrepreneurship.
He now owns a 200-acre prawn farm, a canned fish factory and is a leading prawn exporter, raking in half a million US dollars in the first three months of 2024 alone.
Kithsiri’s attributes his success to the Export Circle of the Bank of Ceylon.
He is full of praise, most grateful and acknowledges the capacity and skill of the officers of BOC Export Circle, to understand and evaluate a small entrepreneur’s struggle for working capital and the unit’s policy of approving credit without collateral for honest and deserving entrepreneurs based on stipulated criteria.
Kithsiri did not catapult to prawn farming and fish exports overnight. The journey was arduous and fraught with many obstacles and battles along the way.
At each step, officers of the BOC Export Circle supported him with ready working capital without mortgages, offering technical and financial advice on his export industry to expand his business focus.
The global Covid 19 pandemic, immediately followed by the country’s currency crisis was the worst challenge in recent history for the SME sector.
Kithsiri identifies and values his introduction to the BOC Export Circle team through a BOC seminar in his area, as the watershed in his entrepreneurial journey. The Export Circle team was instrumental in bailing out a good percentage of Sri Lanka’s SME sector businesses, which were on the brink of collapse. Kithsiri survived this catastrophic impact on the SME sector with a fresh working capital facility under the BOC Export Circle Credit Scheme, which he says was granted even without a mortgage.
Kithsiri subsequently met the Branch Credit - Range 1 team at the head office in Colombo where he got further business advice and direction, along with further facilities to upgrade and diversify his business.
With the infusion of additional working capital, Kithsiri opened a canned fish factory. He was also able to overcome his working capital issues in his other ventures.
While entrepreneurship undoubtedly runs in his veins, the BOC Export Circle supplied the lifeline to his fishing business and exports, which he now plans to develop to the next level with the financial backing of the BOC. Kithsiri greatly appreciates the fact that the BOC Export Circle never let him down even during the worst period of the Covid 19 pandemic. Their expertise in building up cordial relationships and encouraging entrepreneurs to expand and diversify with strong financial support and advice is invaluable to him as an entrepreneur.
Domestic consumption of prawns is approximately 15,000 metric tons of which about half or 7500 metric tons are supplied locally. The 1500 prawn farmers export a bulk of their crop and therefore local demand has to be supplied with imports.
Kithsiri’s target is to work towards expanding prawn farming to a level that the total domestic consumption can be met by our farms while expanding our prawn imports to a larger scale. If this status can be achieved, we will be supplying employment to the majority of the workforce in this area and also save valuable foreign exchange, by supplying Sri Lanka’s total domestic consumption from farms.
Meanwhile, Kithsiri has also acquired land in Negombo town in preparation for his next stage of expansion which would be a tourist city hotel.
