RIYADH: A 20-member Sri Lankan trade mission, representing 28 companies, ended its six-day tour of Saudi Arabia over the weekend, after exploring the market for expanding bilateral trade.

“Sri Lanka has an array of products and services to offer to the Saudi market, and we are sure they will appeal to our Saudi counterparts,” Saman Maldeni, leader of the mission, said while ending its visit covering Jeddah and Riyadh.

“Our mission members have been able to identify several areas of cooperation,” Maldeni said, adding that he was hopeful that the mission’s visit will start yielding fruit in the coming months.

“Our objective was to explore the potential of the Saudi Arabia market for Sri Lankan exports and we will continue to visit the Kingdom in a bid to establish a firm rapport with our counterparts,” Maldeni, who is also the deputy director of Sri Lanka Export Development Board, said.

Describing the visit as a success, he said a series of one-to-one business meetings aimed at matchmaking between Sri Lankan exporters and Saudi Arabian importers were organized in the two cities. The visitors also held meetings with officials of the chambers of commerce and industry in the two cities.

During its stay in the Kingdom, the delegation toured a number of major supermarket chains, including Bin Dawood, Hyper Panda, Al Sadhan and Al Othaim.

The Sri Lankan business delegation consisted of companies holding portfolios in a number of established and growing export sectors in goods, including ornamental fish, desiccated coconut, fruit and vegetables, garments, trailers, porcelain ware and tea. They represented services including business outsourcing and information technology.

The volume of trade between the two countries stood at $249.541 in 2008, with the balance remaining in favor of the Kingdom. “There is a yawning gap in the trade balance because of Sri Lanka’s huge oil and petrochemicals imports from the Kingdom,” a Sri Lankan trade official said.

“We expect the visit will help increase trade opportunities for Sri Lankan products in this large market,” Sri Lankan Consul General Abdul Latiff Mohamed Lafeer, who organized the visit of the mission, told Arab News in Jeddah. He said he planned to organize a visit by Saudi entrepreneurs to the island state in due course, which would help both parties to enhance their trade potentials.

(With input from K.S. Ramkumar in Jeddah)