Mission (Part 1) Accomplished

Almost exactly 15 years after its founding in 2009, Rural Returns (Gte) Ltd closed the doors of its Sales Office in Colombo, our base of operations for several years. The company was founded on a Mission to alleviate poverty with novel interventions, and its defining activity since its founding had been the business of transforming the market for heirloom rice in Sri Lanka.

I can say with great pride and gratitude that we certainly did that. As the early business plans and decks always said, the objective overall, and in rice, was to "go out of business" - eliminate poverty so we no longer needed to exist, and as the first step towards that, to create a dynamic and self-sustaining market for alternate varieties of rice that enabled half the paddy acreage and a significant majority of farmers in the country to genuinely contribute to the national economy and individual and national prosperity.

With rice - change started happening pretty fast. After the local market launch of Ayu Rice at ProFoods ProPack 2011 , the three biggest supermarket chains had within five years entered the game themselves, competing with the guys who created the category for them.  The intention had always been to be a significant enough player in the market to bring it to a different, more equitable, and a self-sustaining one where farmers could never be exploited by a monopsony, or an extremely concentrated group of buyers able to beat down prices at the farm gate.

That goal was accomplished. Competing with the big players beyond that point, as long as the farmer and the consumer are well served, needed to make good business sense.

Some corners of the market have their challenges, and in an industry with massive returns to capital, the dangers of buyer concentration could return. However, the time had come for Rural Returns to wind down its major rice retailing operation, and the closure of the Sales Office in Borella marked the end of that era of our history.

More remains to be done with the greater mission, and much is happening behind the scenes - but for now,  it is time to take a step back and take pride in what we achieved in the category, while focusing on the Next.

To our many loyal customers, who still call, message and come looking for us - Thank You for your loyalty and appreciation! We will work with the country's smallholder farmers to make sure you don't miss out on the quality that kept you coming back to us again and again.