The name Beni Sankar still remains inextricably linked to the country’s rice industry. But the 68-year-old farmer says openly that he has closed the door on the sector which, over the years, has made the Sankar name a household one in local business circles.
“I’m too old for that now,” Sankar says, though, still seemingly full of entrepreneurial spirit you get a sense that his pragmatism will take him wherever worthwhile business opportunities might call.
He is inclined to take his time guiding you through the peaks and troughs of the Sankar experience in the rice industry, from the big investment risks that saw his father Kayman rise to become the country’s most successful rice farmer, to the decline of the Sankar rice empire, a circumstance which he attributes, at least in part, to the machinations of local politics.
