Category: Agriculture

Sep 09, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Eastern Merchants, a rubber export firm said it lost 17 million rupees in the year to March 2013, from a profit of 105 million rupees a year earlier as world rubber prices dropped.Car sales in India had plunged 20 percent and listed Indian tyre companies had also performed […]

Sept 06, 2013 (LBO) – A Netherlands based company has offered to set up a hi-tec dairy farm with processing facilities with high yield milch cows, provided suitable land with fresh water is made available, officials said. Velema Holdings, a Netherland based investment firm, is offering to put together a turnkey dairy facility if about […]

WELLINGTON, August 19, 2013 (AFP) – A new contamination scare hit New Zealand’s multi-billion dollar dairy industry on Monday after it was revealed a milk product with excessive nitrate levels had been exported to China. Both New Zealand’s Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) and the company at the centre of the latest scare, Westlake Milk, […]

Aug 14, 2013 (LBO) – Balangoda Plantations Plc, a tea farming company in Sri Lanka’s Stassen group said profits fell 56 percent to 45.7 million rupees in the June 2013 quarter from a year earlier. Sri Lanka’s tea companies have been facing higher wage costs and from around mid year production disruption due to heavy […]

Aug 06, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Talawakele Tea Estates Plc said it made a loss of 3.0 million rupees in the June 2013 quarter down from a profit of 26 million rupee a year earlier. The firm reported a loss of 13 cents per share. In the six months to June the firm reported […]

Aug 06, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has suspended imports of all milk imports from New Zealand and asked Fonterra brands to withdraw any products containing whey protein, an official said.Sri Lanka’s Industrial Technology Institute has said it had found traces of DCD in several brands of milk including that of Fonterra, though the health […]

August 02, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Watawala Plantations Plc, which farms tea, rubber and oil palm said its parent Estate Management Services has upped its stake to 74.6 percent. Watawala profits fell sharply in the June quarter as rains hit output and labour costs rose and commodity prices softened. The parent bought 49.3 million […]

July 26, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute (IWMI) said it is partnering with island’s environmental authority to turn urban waste, a major water pollutant into organic fertilizer. Sri Lanka’s urban waste has a high volume of moist organic matter which is not economical to burn and generate power, experts have said. […]

July 23, 2013 (LBO) – Tea production was down 4.29 percent to 24.69 million kilograms in June 2013 from a year earlier, Sri Lanka Tea Board data showed, amid warnings from tea companies that heavy rains were reducing output.The sharpest drop was seen in high grown elevations with production down 19 percent to 4.56 million […]

July 18, 2013 (LBO) – An agri business fair in Killinochchi, a former war zone in the northern Sri Lanka is ready to open on July 26 with all stalls filled, its organizers said.The event has been supported backed by the Governor of the Northern Province, the military and state officials, the organizers said. The […]

July 16, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s ‘Ceylon Tea’ has been showcased at a specialty food fair in the in the US city of New York, the island’s embassy said. Representatives of the US tea trade, officials from the US Tea Council and media had attended a networking dinner on July 01. On July 02, […]

July 09, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea crop has been hit badly by heavy rain in June with some estates seeing production falling to less than half and losses in some firms mounting to 100 million rupees, an industry association said.The Ceylon Planters’ Association of Ceylon, representing about two dozen large firms said due […]