Category: Agriculture

April 03, 2012 (LBO) – Small farmers making rubber in Sri Lanka might be able to get better prices by pooling their efforts and introducing traceability systems that would ensure guaranteed quality to buyers, researchers have found. In Sri Lanka, Lokanathan said about 43 percent of the rubber output is sold as ‘ribbed smoked sheets’ […]

Mar 30, 2012 (LBO) – Tea production in Sri Lanka has been reduced by bad weather with crops in other key origins like Kenya and India also down for the same reason, brokers said. “Due to the extremely hot and humid conditions, plantations are experiencing dwindling intakes,” tea brokers John Keells said. “It is reported […]

Mar 29, 2012 (LBO) – Prices of Sri Lankan tea, especially those grown at low elevations, perked up at this week’s auction, giving some relief to producers battered by rising costs and reduced demand in key markets. “The 3.0 million kilos of low grown teas that came under the hammer this week met with excellent […]

Mar 26, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea prices perked up after the recent depreciation of the rupee against the dollar but unrest in the Middle East, a big market, will act as a drag on further increases, brokers said. “The general trend of declining prices witnessed from the second half of 2011 is expected […]

Mar 22, 2012 (LBO) – Tea production in Sri Lanka in February 2012 fell compared with last year with much of the fall coming from low grown types harvested by small farmers, according to the Tea Board. Low grown teas are produced mainly by small holders who have been hit hard by lower demand from […]

Mar 19, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is one of the countries in South Asia whose poor would suffer if prices of commodities like wheat rise further, the Asia Development Bank (ADB) said in a new report. But the study said rapid population growth, changing food consumption patterns linked to higher incomes, and stagnating agricultural […]

Mar 16, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea trade has warned that tea export orders and prices could fall in the months ahead as crops rise and consumption falls off in key markets. And smallholders, whose returns have been sharply diminishing, find that their operations are increasingly becoming financially unsustainable, the CTTA said. “The prognosis […]

Mar 15, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea industry has called for urgent improvements in productivity and new markets to ride out volatility in major Middle Eastern markets that continue to dampen tea export earnings. January and February tea prices have averaged about 40 rupees a kilo below that of January February 2011. While there […]

Mar 14, 2012 (LBO) – The fall in the value of the Sri Lankan rupee following a snap devaluation last year has helped tea exporters improve profit margins and regain competitiveness, Finlays Colombo, a top exporter has said. Its chairman Kumar Jayasuriya said the firm had a difficult year in 2011 because of problems in […]

Mar 04, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has lined up 28.5 billion rupees in credit mainly from state banks to buy up an estimated 4. 5 million metric tonnes of paddy in an upcoming main harvest season, the state information office said. Rice farmers are among the special interest groups most favoured by the state. […]

Feb 28, 2012 (LBO) – RAM Ratings Lanka has confirmed Lankem Ceylon PLC™s long- and short-term corporate credit ratings of A- and P2. RAM Ratings Lanka has also confirmed the A- long-term issue rating of Lankem™s 500 million rupee unsecured unsubordinated redeemable debentures. “The outlook on the long-term ratings is stable,” a statement said. “The […]

Feb 24, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka needs an effective fisheries protection programme to implement the sustainable policies that are required to ensure continued market access for its fish exports, a fisheries and maritime security expert has said. A fully integrated fishing vessel monitoring and fisheries protection programme to fight poaching would also enable Sri […]