Category: Agriculture

Oct 24, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Watawala Plantations returned to profit in the September 2011 quarter, containing first half losses at 13 million rupees, as increased palm oil crops and prices helped offset losses from tea. Group sales in the six months to September 2011 sales rose eight percent to almost three billion rupees […]

Oct 06, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Bogawantalawa Tea Estate, a listed firm said it has received approval from the state to transfer management of three factories and land to the domestic arm of a US based tea marketing firm. Bogawantalawa Plantations said in a stock filing that it had received the nod from the […]

Oct 06, 2011 (LBO) – Syria has lifted an import ban on value-added tea exports from Sri Lanka which had raised fears it could sharply reduce earnings from the island’s main export product. “There’s now no ban by Syria,” said Hasitha De Alwis, director promotions of the Sri Lanka Tea Board. “The ban on smaller […]

Oct 04, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s value-added tea exports have fallen in recent months in what a tea broker described as a “disturbing trend” as the country is trying to coax its main export up the value chain. Tea bags rose to a “healthy” nine percent in the quarter from six percent a year […]

Sept 30, 2011 (LBO) – Tea estates in Sri Lanka’s central hills have had no respite from a market downturn and continue to incur losses of 150 rupees a kilo owing to lower prices and crops, a broker said. However, despite lower crops in recent months, an anticipated recovery in production in the last quarter […]

Sept 27, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea production is unlikely to match last year’s levels given a continuing decline in crops owing to bad weather, a broker said. “In the mid grown areas on the eastern side, Namunukula and Passara, and Linugalla, and on the western slopes Kandy, Matale, Kurunegala and Madulkelle have recorded […]

Sept 22, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan rubber products manufacturers are lobbying to double an export cess on raw rubber exports as prices remain high amid strong demand and tight local supply. Manufacturers want the export cess, that had been raised to 12 rupees a kilo only earlier this year, doubled to 24 rupees, according […]

Sept 20, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea crops and prices have fallen below those of last year imposing losses on plantations whose costs also went up with a recent wage hike, a broker has said. The ‘Uva’ quality season when teas grown on the eastern slopes of the island’s central hills yield their best […]

Sept 13, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run cattle farms are getting cows from Australia to become ‘self sufficient’ in milk and reduce “the drain on the country™s foreign exchange resources”, the finance ministry said. A 12.9 million US dollar project co-financed by Australia’s Export Finance Insurance Corporation (EFIC) Cooperative and Centrale Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank (Rabobank) of […]

Sept 11, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Pelwatte Sugar Industries, which produces sugar and alcohol has made a 306 million cash call to fix its finances by selling one share for every four held by current shareholders. The firm said in a stock exchange filing that it had a stated capital of 679 million rupees […]

Sept 09, 2011 (LBO) – Climate change brought about by global warming could threaten the famed quality of Sri Lanka’s tea, the island’s main agriculture export and its best known brand, a new report said. “Could this be the beginning of a shift in the global tea cultivation map? ” the brokers asked. “The impact […]

Sep 08, 2011 (LBO) – Prices of teas made by Sri Lankan plantation company estates rose this week although still below production cost as supply fell and demand improved with brokers saying the market seems to have bottomed out. There was good demand at the Colombo auctions with improved buying mainly from shippers to the […]