Category: Agriculture

July 28, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings backed by the US Agency for International Development will build a ‘cold chain’ to bring fishery and agricultural produce from former war torn regions to the market. Sri Lanka’s Hayleys group and USAID are also involved in a project to grow and export fruits and […]

July 25, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is expecting inland fish production to rise 15 percent to 60,000 tonnes in 2011, and is targeting 90,000 tonnes by 2013 backed by a program to push up production, officials said. Rohana Subasinghe, senior fishery resource officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization said Asia accounted for about […]

July 23, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s plantations industries ministry is exploring the possibility of introducing a compulsory auction system for rubber like the tea industry, plantations industries minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said. “The government has decided to investigate the possibility of having a compulsory auction system like what we have in the tea industry also […]

July 22, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea crop is steady at the half-year mark although there was a dip in June, with global tea statistics showing a big shortfall in East Africa while output is up in India, brokers said. The production of low grown teas, which make up over half the crop, was […]

HANOI, July 15, 2011 (AsiaPulse) – Vietnam and Sri Lanka have agreed on a number of measures to strengthen bilateral cooperation, especially in agricultural development. During talks between Vietnamese Minister of Agricultural and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat and Sri Lankan Minister of Agriculture Mahianda Yapa Abeywardana in Hanoi on July 13, the two sides […]

July 13, 2011 (LBO) – Labour productivity on Sri Lankan tea estates has to be improved if regional plantations companies are to survive and afford wage hikes in future, industry officials said. Lalith Obeysekere, chairman of the Planters’ Association which represents regional tea plantations companies, said the island’s tea estates had higher production costs and […]

July 12, 2011 (LBO) – A group of agro firms have warned that Sri Lanka may run short of pesticides for the next growing season unless a controversy over the presence of arsenic is resolved quickly with independent testing. ‘Croplife Sri Lanka’ an industry grouping representing 26 agro chemical firms said arsenic is not an […]

July 03, 2011 (LBO) – State-run Sri Lanka Cashew Corporation is losing money, has low productivity of its lands, and is depending on Treasury handouts to operate, a finance ministry report said. The Cashew Corporation made one percent of the country’s annual production of 8,000 metric tonnes but there wasn’t enough focus on developing cashew […]

July 01, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea exports in May 2011 rose five percent to 25 million kilos from a year ago with earnings also up six percent to 12. 8 billion rupees, brokers said. Exports of tea packets, on which earnings are more than bulk exports. were also up after a change in […]

July 01, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will launch a globally recognized industry standard for Ceylon Tea early next year addressing consumer concerns, including ethical trade and environmental issues, Ceylon Tea Traders Association Chairman Avi de Silva said. If a competitor country does not have any such laws, their firms will still be compliant with […]

June 22, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka aims to bring in new laws restricting sale of coconut land to extents below five acres under efforts to prevent further reduction of acreage and to increase crops, an official said. Minister of coconut development Jagath Pushpakumara said the new laws would be introduced in parliament in about […]

June 22, 2011 (LBO) – Tea production in Sri Lanka in May 2011 fell 5. 3 percent to 32 million kilos from a year ago, according to statistics released by the Tea Board. The shortfall in production came from the high and medium elevations while low grown teas, which make up the bulk of the […]