Japan became the first country in the world to build the most high-tech greenhouse. SARA greenhouse was built in Kasaoka city in Japan and it is the largest single site advance glass greenhouse project with thelatest technology available in the world to grow tomatoes, bell peppers and butterhead lettuce. This project involves operations of advanced greenhouse horticulture and biomass power plant. The cost per acer to build this greenhouse is 5 times higher than the per acer cost of the normal high-tech greenhouse. SARA developed a new climate control system for semi-closed greenhouse settings. Then the next important thing was to select a suitable growing media, which can pair with the climate control system. World leading growing media supplies presented their products and finally the management of SARA, Inc. decided to work exclusively with one of the world’s leading Sri Lankan origin RIOCOCO brand coir growing medium. This is a great and a unique opportunity for RIOCOCO to provethat they are the market leader in coir growing media brands in the world and to win a recognition for Sri Lanka as a country to be a part of the Japan’s most high-tech greenhouse operation.
The opening ceremonywas held in the Kasaoka city greenhouse premiseson 21st of June andinviteesfrom the government of Japan, local government and business partners participated for the ceremony. At the end of the ceremony, SusanthaShan Halamba, Chairman and CEO of the RIOCOCO Lanka (Pvt) Ltd in Sri Lanka and the Ceyhinz Link International, Inc , inTexas, USA presented Sri Lankan flag to display inside the greenhouse and he appreciated the management of SARA for giving this great opportunity to RIOCOCO to be a part of the prestigiousproject. This was the first time “Made in Sri Lanka” coir growing medium product was selected to be used in a most hi-tech greenhouse complex in the world. RIOCOCO coir growing medium products are sold in 52 countries worldwide and it was the only Sri Lankan based company, who was awarded the world most prestigious international business award, Stevie Gold Award in the USA.
Kagome, the largest multi-greenhouse company in Japan also uses RIOCOCO growing media to grow their Disney brand tomatoes throughout Japan since 2006. This is also a very rare opportunity a Sri Lankan based company achieved in Japan to work with a billion-dollar Japanese conglomerate over 13 years and help them to make their product as No1 tomato grade in Japanese market.