Category: Agriculture

Oct 09, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka, a top exporter of tea, has made the world’s largest cup of the brew in a ten foot high thousand gallon cup breaking a Guinness record previously held by the United States. An official from Guinness in London was in Colombo to monitor the event, the organizers said. […]

Oct 08, 2010 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan government is to import chicken and eggs during the traditional festive seasons in November-December and the traditional new year in April, according to a Cabinet decision. The import programme is to be reviewed monthly. Sri Lanka imposed price controls on chicken and also pushed up import duties […]

Sept 27, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is offering 200 acres of land for commercial agriculture on the bank of a major river bordering the island north-eastern region, meeting long-standing requests from businesses for land, a statement said. The offer comes in response to repeated requests from agri-business firms who have been clamouring for land […]

Sept 26, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should make better use of existing stocks of low yielding milch cows in larger privately owned herds rather than importing high-yielding stocks at great cost from abroad, a top official said. There have been attempts in Sri Lanka to import higher yielding cows to improve herd stock and […]

Sept 20, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is to impose a new levy on tea exports to raise funds for marketing and advertising to increase its market share in the highly competitive beverage market, officials said. Upali Dissanayake, additional secretary of the Ministry of Plantation Industries, said the law to enable the collection of the […]

Sept 10, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should consider liberalising tea imports to encourage blending and value addition while plantations companies could use the current stock market bull run to raise funds, a report said. “Given the current buoyancy of the equity market, however, it is opportune for such companies to start tapping the stock […]

Sept 06, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Bairaha Farms, a poultry breeder and processor says the industry is recovering and increasing production after state restrictions on the industry were relaxed but demand is also rising. “Since the Government has been encouraging the local cultivation of maize it did not allow imports in spite of the […]

TRINCOMALEE, September 2, 2010 (AFP) – Fishermen in the Sri Lankan port of Trincomalee hoped the end of the island’s civil war would bring prosperity, but dynamite and corruption now threaten their livelihoods. Trincomalee, on the northeast coast, has one of the world’s finest natural harbours and was fiercely fought over during the war until […]

Aug 30, 2010 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan government’s failure to crack down on theft in spice plantations is threatening the industry, a key foreign exchange earner and provider of employment, a senior official has warned. Christopher Fernando, chairman of the Spices and Allied Products Producers™ and Traders™ Association (SAPPTA), said theft of produce was […]

Aug 29, 2010 (LBO) – Nestle Lanka, a unit of Swiss based Nestle, has opened a milk chilling centre in the former war-zone of Kilinochchi in the north of Sri Lanka, to buy milk for hundreds of dairy farmer in the area, the food firm said in a statement. It will also distribute equipment and […]

Aug 25, 2010 (LBO) – A World Bank study has called on Sri Lanka to loosen controls on land ownership and use, saying restrictions tend to keep poor farmers poor. “Land-development ordinances that regulate the use and transfer of land keep a larger proportion of people dependent on agriculture,” the report said. “They also keep […]

Aug 19, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government is to spend 2. 5 billion rupees over the next three years to extend a programme to encourage rice cultivation and consumption and reduce wheat flour consumption, a spokesman said. Rambukkwelle said the government wants to support the agriculture sector which it sees as a key factor […]