Category: Agriculture

May 17, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka, one of the world™s biggest exporters of black tea, shipped less brew during the first quarter of this year, but a weak rupee helped maintain export revenues, a report said. From January to March, the tropical island sold 75.8 million kilos of tea to overseas buyers, which was […]

May 15, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s major tea exporters, who have made a proposal to liberalize tea imports to make the island a global centre for tea, say they do not want to import low quality teas for re-export. Sri Lanka’s Tea Exporters Association has made a proposal to liberalize tea imports for re-exports […]

May 14, 2012 (LBO) – Profits at Udapussellawa Plantations, a unit of Sri Lanka’s James Finlay group fell 52 percent in the March 2012 quarter with revenues hit by weak performance in rubber, interim accounts showed. The firm reported earnings of 55 cents for the quarter. Revenues fell 5 percent to 747 million rupees. Cost […]

May 13, 2012 (LBO) – Profits at Sri Lanka’s Balangoda Plantations, a unit of listed Distilleries Corporation fell 49 percent to 67 million rupees in the March 2012 quarter, hit by falls in rubber sales, interim accounts showed. The firm also paid 19 million rupees in management fees down from 52 million a year earlier. […]

May 09, 2012 (LBO) – Nestle Lanka, said its fresh milk collections were up 45 percent in the four months to April from a year earlier, amid claims by some dairy farmers that their milk was not bought by collectors. “Our milk processing facility in Kurunegala is now running at its fullest capacity¦and we are […]

May 04, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s finance ministry said it has raised taxes on imported milk powder by a further 15 percent or 92 rupees a kilogram, pushing up prices further as domestic dairy farmers threw away fresh milk saying there was no demand. Import taxes work by inflicting harm of the poorest sections […]

April 26, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka™s tea output slipped 22.6 percent in March, over the same period 2011, due to bad weather conditions, a tea broking firm said. Crop figures released by the state-run Tea Board showed output fell to 27.21 million kilos in March, as against 35.13 million kilos recorded in March a […]

April 20, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea prices rose again at this week’s auction after rising in the previous sale but remain below last year’s levels in US dollar terms after a sharp rupee depreciation. “Medium and low grown teas have shown a growth year-on-year in rupee terms,” Forbes & Walker tea brokers said. […]

Apr 20, 2012 (LBO) – China’s Sinohydro Corp. has won a 252 million US dollar contract to build a dam providing water and hydropower in north-central Sri Lanka. A statement said the decision to award the contract to build the headworks of Moragahakanda Reservoir to the Chinese state-owned hydropower engineering and construction company was made […]

Apr 19, 2012 (LBO) – Margins in Sri Lanka’s poultry industry would narrow amid higher capacity but per person chicken consumption would continue to grow, a top poultry firm in the island has said. Three acre farms, a unit of Ceylon Grain Elevators, which is Sri Lanka’s largest day old chick producer said per capita […]

April 12, 2012 (LBO) – Prices of Sri Lanka’s low grown teas, which account for the bulk of the crop, rose again at last week’s auction and are now well above last year’s levels, brokers said. “In view of the present adverse weather conditions, global crop production looks bearish with Kenya, Sri Lanka and North […]

April 10, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lankan plantation company Kotagala Plantations plans to plant 20,000 hectares of rubber in Cambodia, it said in a stock exchange filing. Kotagala Plantations has 12 tea and 11 rubber plantations in Sri Lanka. It has eight rubber manufacturing units, producing pale crepe and sole crepe. The total value of […]