Category: Agriculture

Feb 19, 2012 (LBO) – The sea around Sri Lanka is facing the danger of being overfished by an estimated 600 illegal vessels a day, and marine reserves may have to be declared to conserve fish stocks, a media report said. The Sunday Times newspaper quoting John Church, an international fisheries and maritime security specialist […]

Feb 17, 2012 (LBO) – Prices of Sri Lankan teas rose at the Colombo auctions this week with brokers attributing the increase to the fall in the value of the rupee against the dollar after the central bank stopped defending the currency. “There was improved demand,” Forbes & Walker Tea Brokers said in a report. […]

Feb 17, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s plantations still need huge investments to upgrade the living standards of workers, some of which would have to come from buyers through higher prices, an official said. In recent years investments had been made in housing, roads, water and sanitation, child development and nutrition by plantations companies with […]

Feb 16, 2012 (LBO) – A Sri Lankan fisherman was shot and killed as police quelled a protest following protests after a weakening exchange rate forced a sudden fuel price increase to reduce credit financed losses in the largely state-run energy sector. The Island newspaper said both police and the military were involved in quelling […]

Feb 16, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Kelani Valley Plantations said December 2011 quarter net profit rose 13 percent to 187 million rupees from a year ago as tea and rubber prices fell and costs rose. December 2011 quarter sales of the firm, which is part of the Hayleys group, rose 48 percent to 1. […]

Feb 14, 2012 (LBO) – The market for tea in the United States is growing rapidly with the best prospects being in ready-to-drink teas, Joseph Simrany, president of the Tea Association of USA has told Sri Lanka’s tea industry. Even beverage multinationals were shifting towards tea which is also becoming increasingly popular among younger American […]

Feb 10, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea small holders, who produce the bulk of the crop, have said rising costs of production, mainly driven by higher labour costs, is making the sector unsustainable. Our production costs have increased after the latest plantation sector wage increase in 2010. So to remain profitable farmers are cutting […]

Feb 09, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Bogawantalawa Tea Estates Plc said it lost 28 million rupees in the December 2011 quarter from a profit of 69 million rupees a year earlier as margins turned negative. The firm reported a loss of 34 cents for the quarter. In the nine months to December it lost […]

Mar 08, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Watalawa Plantations Plc said cash from the sale of a marketing arm will be used to expand oil palm, boost efficiencies in its tea estates and cut debt, as interest rates continued to rise. Shortly before the budget, through an ad hominen law the state took back land […]

Feb 08, 2012 (LBO) – RAM Ratings Lanka has assigned long- and short-term corporate credit ratings of A and P2 to CIC Holdings (CIC) with a stable outlook on the long-term rating. The group™s ratings are supported by the dominant market positions in its key business areas as well as resilient demand for agriculture related […]

BANGKOK, (Asia Pulse) – The international rice trade is forecast to fall by approximately 1 million tonnes, or 5 per cent, this year as improved harvest prospects in several major importing countries may reduce overall demand after achieving a worldwide record of 34.5 million tonnes (milled basis) in 2011, according to the United Nations’ Food […]

Feb 03, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lankan small farmers are suffering because of a downturn in demand for tea from key markets in the Middle East owing to political unrest, an industry official said. Goonetilleke said 2012 had not started off well for the tea growers and factories producing low grown teas whose main market […]