Food commodity importer Omega Traders has opened a lentil and orid dhal processing factory at 258 Canal Road, Wattala, with a capacity of roughly 150 metric tonnes per eight-hour production day.
The plant was inaugurated on 18 September, with Australian High Commissioner Matthew Duckworth as chief guest and Dr. Siddhika G. Senaratne, Director General and CEO of the Sri Lanka Standards Institution, as guest of honour, Hiru News reported.
The plant
Beyond throughput, the investment is aimed at consistency. The facility carries new-generation cleaning, processing and sorting machinery, including colour-sorting technology that identifies and removes discoloured grains and foreign material, with quality checks at multiple stages from incoming raw material to finished product. An in-house quality-control laboratory allows the company to monitor product parameters across production batches.
The photographs released with the announcement show a multi-storey steel-framed mill inside a warehouse shed, alongside the inauguration party and branded product displays.
The upgraded capacity supports the company’s three Mysoor dhal brands, pitched at different segments: Rainbow Jumbo Dhal as the premium line, Komas Dhal on dependable quality, and Rozanna Dhal on everyday value.
The local sourcing angle
The more consequential half of the investment is the orid dhal line. Omega Traders says it intends to source locally grown black matpe from Sri Lankan farmers and process it into orid dhal at the new plant — putting a domestic crop through a modern mill rather than importing the finished product.
Dhal is among Sri Lanka’s most import-dependent food staples, and a processing route for a locally grown pulse is a modest step against that exposure. The company frames it as strengthening the link between local agriculture and domestic food processing.
Background
Omega Traders was established in 1981 as a small trading business — 45 years to this year’s anniversary, which reconciles with the company’s own framing — and has grown into an importer, processor and distributor of essential food commodities. It has supplied Mysoor dhal through wholesalers, retailers and distributors for more than two decades.
Still unanswered. The filing is a company announcement and gives no figure for the capital cost of the plant, no employment number, and no volume target for local black matpe purchases or a price offered to farmers. It does not explain the Australian High Commissioner’s role as chief guest, though Australia is a significant origin for the red lentils Sri Lanka imports. No other verified newsroom had carried the opening at the time of writing.
