Category: Agriculture

Mar 11, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka may temporarily lift a 35 percent import tax on maize to prevent prices going higher and hurting the island’s poultry industry after floods destroyed a part of the domestic crop, an official said. Sri Lanka’s agriculture ministry has requested approval from the cabinet of ministers to cut taxes […]

Mar 09, 2011 (LBO) – Finlays Colombo has urged Sri Lankan authorities to allow more tea imports for blending saying it could lose market share by not catering to growing consumer demand for multi-origin blended teas. Chairman Kumar Jayasuriya said the firm, part of the UK’s Swire group, has been lobbying along with other tea […]

Feb 25, 2011 (LBO) – Bad weather has disrupted the Sri Lankan tea industry’s ‘Western quality season’ when teas grown on the western slopes of the island’s central massif yield their best quality and fetch high prices, brokers said. The season, which is in the first quarter of the year “has been badly disrupted due […]

Feb 22, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is looking to begin talks through a joint working group with India to find a long term solution to fishery poaching in Sri Lanka’s northern waters, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said. “We want to re-activate the mechanism of an India and Sri Lanka joint working group to find a […]

Feb 21, 2011 (LBO) – High commodity prices helped Sri Lanka’s Balangoda Plantations managed by the Stassen group turn a profit in the December 2010 quarter with management fees exceeding profits, its accounts showed. The firm made a December 2010 quarter net profit of 35 million rupees against a loss 105 million rupees the year […]

Feb 14, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s reservoirs including those planned or under construction may have to be re-designed with larger spill gates and canals to evacuate excess water following recent rare floods in quick succession this year, officials said. Sri Lanka’s Mahaweli river valley agency, which controls 12 large reservoirs says its network is […]

Feb 11, 2011 (LBO) – The boom in rubber prices, that helped prop up profits at Sri Lanka’s Kelani Valley Plantations, is unlikely to last, its chairman Mohan Pandithage has warned, according to a stock exchange filing. The company, the plantation subsidiary of Dipped Products, the rubber manufacturing arm of the Hayleys group, said December […]

Feb 03, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka earned a record 1. 37 billion US dollars in tea exports in 2010, exceeding that of Kenya, which exported more, owing to higher prices and more valued added shipments, brokers said. The island’s tea export earnings from exporting 314 million kilos were 16 percent more than in 2009. […]

Jan 31, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Watawala Plantations December 2010 quarter profit rose three percent to 189 million rupees from a year ago with group sales stagnant at 1. 7 billion rupees, a stock exchange filing said. Earnings per share for the company, a unit of India’s Tata Tea group, were 0. 80 rupees […]

Jan 27, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Bairaha Farms, a poultry breeder and processor said net profits for the December 2010 quarter rose 546 percent to 163 million rupees from a year earlier, with revenues growing 25 percent to 706 million rupees. The poultry industry is experiencing strong demand and high prices after a slump […]

Jan 25, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Horana Plantations, which grows tea and rubber said profits in the December 2010 quarter grew 80 percent to 135 million rupees, while revenues increased only 5.5 percent to 560 million rupees. The firms produces about 4.0 million kilos of tea a year and 1.6 million kilos of rubber. […]

January 22, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka, one of the world’s biggest producers of black tea, reported Saturday that output hit a record high in 2010, helped by good weather. The total crop for 2010 grew by 13. 1 percent to 329.4 million kilograms (72 4.7 million pounds) from 291.1 million kilograms a year earlier, […]