RIOCOCO Opens Its Largest Single Production Site in Sri Lanka

KATUPOTHA – RIOCOCO, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of coconut coir growing substrates, has opened the largest single coco coir production facility in Sri Lanka, built at its existing base in Katupotha and operational since July 2026. The announcement coincides with the company’s 22nd year in business.

The facility was commissioned to absorb rising demand from commercial growers – a customer base that now spans 65 countries and includes some of the largest greenhouse and licensed medical Сannabis operations across North America, Europe, and Asia.

“For twenty-two years we’ve told growers the same thing: the medium has to be consistent every single time,” said Shan Halamba, CEO of RIOCOCO. “Keeping that promise as we grow means building capacity to support our growing customer base.”

RIOCOCO, a brand of Ceyhinz Link International Inc., produces grow bags, starter blocks, propagation plugs, planks, and disks used across high-value commercial programs, including facilities cultivating strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, melons, eggplants, and pharmaceutical-grade Сannabis. Its products carry OMRI certification for organic compliance and are manufactured under ISO 9001:2015 quality management and ISO 14001:2015 environmental management standards.

For licensed Сannabis producers, those certifications carry real operational weight. Input documentation is a regulatory requirement in most legal markets, and substrate sourcing is among the variables that compliance auditors review. Operators drawing from a single large-scale, ISO-certified facility have a cleaner traceability record than those stitching together supply from multiple smaller or uncertified vendors.

Earlier this year, Halamba gathered the full Sri Lanka team to mark the company’s 22nd anniversary, unveiling a commemorative sign at the production headquarters. Around the same time, RIOCOCO completed a redesign of its grow bag packaging, keeping the original logo while updating the visual presentation to reflect the company’s current footprint.

The company brought home six Stevie Awards at the 2024 International Business Awards and was recognized as Sri Lanka’s National Chamber of Exporters Best Ethical Trading Exporter in 2023.

For Cannabis operators reviewing growing media sourcing this year, this development is worth a second look*. Coco coir has been steadily displacing rockwool and peat alternatives in licensed cultivation environments – valued for root aeration, moisture retention, and clean integration with precision fertigation systems. As legal markets continue to expand in Europe, Australia, and parts of Latin America, large-scale licensed producers have started treating substrate consistency as a supply chain vulnerability rather than a routine procurement line. A manufacturer investing in consolidated, large-format, auditable production, rather than relying on fragmented sourcing across multiple smaller sites, gives cultivators a more defensible compliance story and a more predictable input cost structure.

* Highly Capitalized Network-HCN reports impartially on developments in the industry and its participants & does not endorse, promote, or take positions on any party, association, or company involved.