Category: Agriculture

Dec 27, 2012 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka unit of Nestlé, a Swiss-based food group said it had paid 4 billion rupees (31 million US dollars) to dairy and coconut farmers in the island to buy milk and coconuts during 2012. The firm has a network of 23,000 dairy farmers and 5,000 coconut farmers supplying […]

Dec 20, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Kahawatta Plantations Plc, has increased production and boosted employee incomes by trying out an ‘out grower’ model of allowing workers to farm tea on estate land on their spare time. The statement said workers go to work in gem pits and other work and only about 40 percent […]

Dec 06, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s rice farmers who have been hit by a recent drought will be given 371 million rupees worth of seed paddy by tax payers, enough to plant 58,000 hectares of land, the finance ministry said. The state has given land to farmers, built infrastructure pumping vast volumes of money, […]

Dec 04, 2012 (LBO) – India has gifted 175 boats and equipment worth 71 million rupees to war refugees in Mannar in northeastern Sri Lanka, the Indian High Commission (embassy) in Colombo said. . Indian envoy Ashok K. Kantha has recalled that in 2009 India has gifted boats to fishermen in Vaharai in the Eastern […]

Nov 29, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Sunshine Holdings, which has interests in tea and oil palm said it was in talks with Pyramid Wilmar (Pvt) Ltd, a Colombo based unit of two Singaporean firms, to use their expertise and distribution chains. . Sunshine Holdings said in a stock exchange filing that it was exploring […]

WADDUWA, Sri Lanka, Nov 12, 2012 (AFP) – Clambering between high trees carrying a knife in the search for sap to brew alcoholic drinks is a young man’s game — and Sri Lanka’s ageing toddy tappers say the craft is dying. “I don’t know for how long I can continue this because it is becoming […]

Nov 08, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should cut high food taxes which will make proteins more accessible to the poor and reduce malnutrition among small children, science and technology minister Tissa Vitharana has said. “I looked into this question of nutrition, and there is evidence that there is some increase of acute mal-nutrition, really […]

Nov 08, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government will increase subsidies to encourage small farmers expand tea, rubber and coconut cultivation, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said. Small farmers account for the bulk of the production of the three main agricultural export commodities, Rajapaksa, who is also finance minister, told parliament while presenting the budget for 2013. […]

Nov 02, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Nestle Lanka Plc, a unit of Switzerland Nestle, said profits in the September quarter rose 3.9 percent from a year earlier to 798 million rupees as it took steps rolex replica to counter the effects of a depreciating currency and higher energy costs. The firm reported earnings of […]

Nov 02, 2012 (LBO) – Heavy rains in Sri Lanka’s tea growing areas are not likely to lead to a sharp recovery in crops that have been reduced by drought, a tea broker said. John Keells brokers also said the rains will relieve the suffering caused by drought which had reduced irrigation water and hydro-power […]

Oct 30, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Bogawantalawa Plantations, which has interests in tea and timber said it made profits of 88.9 million rupees in the September 2012 quarter recovering from a loss of 127 million rupees a year earlier. Last year’s losses were partly caused by steep increase in gratuity liability following an increase […]

Oct 30, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will host the annual meeting of an inter-governmental organization of pepper producing countries this week, where production and export issues will be discussed, including a new set of manufacturing guidelines. Once approved, they will be applicable to all the member countries who have faced complaints from buyers about […]