MDF recently travelled to the North of Sri Lanka on a story-gathering expedition, focusing on partner, Divron Bioventures. Divron is an aquaculture exporter active primarily in the Northern and North Central provinces. The company’s specialty is a rare Sri Lankan freshwater species – the giant freshwater prawn (GFWP). With MDF’s support, Divron is strengthening its sourcing and supply chain, which is providing benefits to fishing communities, in order to meet export demands, primarily from South-East Asian markets

Exact numbers are not documented, but Sri Lanka is home to thousands of reservoirs, some of which were built as far back as the 3rd century BC. It is an impressively complex irrigation system, as well as a largely underutilised resource. Capitalizing on this abundant resource, Divron stocks close to 60 reservoirs across Sri Lanka with GFWP post-larvae (early-stage prawn), hatched and nurtured in their carefully maintained hatchery. These waters have the ideal conditions for the prawns’ growth – and under the right conditions, the prawn can grow up to a massive 600-700g.

According to Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development, inland aquaculture accounted for 13% of total annual fish production in 2015, with close to 49,000 inland-fishing-based households in the sector.

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