Category: Agriculture

July 09, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka, one of the world™s largest tea exporters, has been urged to replace its ageing politicised wage structure with a productivity linked model, to sustain the viability of the centuries old brew. Trade unions, backed by ethnic minority political groups, prefer a fixed day™s wage instead of a productivity-linked […]

July 09, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka owes fertiliser importers some 16.0 billion rupees for purchasing fertiliser to be distributed among farmers growing a wide range of crops, a local fertiliser company said. Agri Expansion Weerasekara said the company was scouting for export opportunities and is investing 200 million rupees for its new agri-venture in […]

June 29, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka said it had banned the export of rice amid a drought to ensure that the “country will have adequate rice stock at affordable prices”, in the latest in a series of ad hoc state interventions in agriculture. Sri Lanka only exports small volumes of rice targeting expatriates or […]

June 20, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea production fell 8. 4 percent to 30.8 million kilograms in May 2012 from a year earlier, the state tea promotion office said as the country was hit by dry weather. High grown tea fell to 7.36 million kilos from 9.0 kilos, mediums fell to 5.58 million kilos […]

June 05, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s CIC Holdings PLC, with investments from agriculture to paints, plans to invest over 14 million dollars in the coming months, to expand dairy, poultry and healthcare business, an official said. The dairy segment, which includes fresh milk production to yoghurts, will see a 6. 5 million dollar investment […]

May 24, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka, one of the world™s biggest tea exporters, produced and shipped less of the brew for the four months to April this year, due to poor weather and unrest in key markets, official figures showed. Tea, which grows across the island™s central hillside regions and in the south, saw […]

May 22, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Nestle Lanka Plc, a unit of a Swiss food firm said profits in the March 2012 quarter fell 25 percent to 461 million rupees as the firm was hit by higher energy prices and currency depreciation. Nestle Lanka reported earnings of 8.60 rupees per share for the quarter. […]

May 22, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hapugastenne and Udapussellawa Plantations, controlled by James Finlays said losses were making it difficult to replant tea but they were trying to improve productivity and was expanding rubber and timber. Hapugastenne Plantations lost 214.00 million rupees in the year to March 2012, reversing a profit of 281 million […]

May 21, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is in talks with a South African commodity firm to export 20,000 tonnes of rice lying at Paddy Marketing Board, a state-run grain purchasing firm, officials said. Agriculture minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene said discussions have been initiated to sell ‘red-rice’ to South Africa at about 370 dollars a […]

May 21, 2012 (LBO) – Hearing I was off to the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, a friend wrote ‘come back and tell us what you learned.’ This question was on my mind when I heard that Sri Lanka’s Minister of Power and Energy was in Bhutan at the same time. What had we each learned […]

May 21, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s will export its first consignment of maize on May 22, filling a part of a 10,000 tonne order to Taiwan and Canada as domestic production picks up pace, officials said. Sadikeen said as a result buyers were prepared to pay more for his maize. He was exporting at […]

May 17, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s large tea growers have opposed a proposal by major exporters to import teas for re-export to make the island a global hub for blending and packing to retail markets. The Planters’ Association of Ceylon (PA), an industry body of large tea farms producing 30 percent of the tea […]