New Anthoney’s Farms, first poultry producer to embrace biodegradable packaging

Taking a pledge to combat the detrimental environment pollution caused by plastic waste, New Anthoney’s Farms (Private) Ltd, with an undisputed reputation in the nation’s poultry sector shifted to 100pct compostable packaging, making it the first and only poultry producer in Sri Lanka to embrace biodegradable measures in their food packaging process.

These biodegradable packaging of their infamous HarithaHari chicken range is produced from renewable sources such as plant-based materials such as starch, cellulose, plant oil, sugar, reed to name a few, which can be safely consumed and degraded quickly. The company identified the crucial and timely need to adopt alternative eco-friendly packaging as plastic waste recycling only brings about short-term solutions.

New Anthoney’s Farms was able to successfully develop flexible film formats that enabled deliver the functional requirements of the consumer-facing packaging that can be recyclable or compostable.

‘The move to switch all our packaging to 100pct biobased and biodegradable is part of the company-wide efforts in sustainability and environmental commitments. Our R&D is constantly exploring ways in developing sustainable packaging across our product portfolio by collaborating with key research institutions, experts and academia,’ said its CEO Neil Suraweera.

According to statistics, Sri Lanka’s plastic consumption is well beyond 15pct annually and out of the hundreds of thousands metric tons of raw plastic materials imported, around 70pct counts for domestic usage. Adding to this is the dire need to counter the vast land and marine pollution that has been challenging the country’s ecology.