Category: Agriculture

Sept 14, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s plantations industry will face about six billion rupees in extra costs owing to a deal with labour unions that ended a dispute over a wage hike that had disrupted tea supplies from hill-country estates, a senior official said. Regional plantations companies (RPCs) are to sign a deal today […]

Sept 13, 2009 (LBO) – Talks between Sri Lankan plantations companies and labour unions on a pay hike appeared to have made some headway when the dominant union agreed on a deal, union officials said. Plantations companies had said they were unable to pay 500 rupees a day as they cannot afford it given high […]

Sept 12, 2009 (LBO) – Talks between Sri Lankan plantations companies and labour unions on a pay hike were unsuccessful Friday and are likely to be resumed next week, although the gap seems to have narrowed, union officials said.O A Ramiah,.Secretary General of the Joint Plantation Trade Union Centre, one of the three main unions […]

Sept 12, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Pelwatte Sugar Industries (PSISL) has used a state-supported credit scheme to stop farmers from moving into more attractive food crops and rubber cultivation and lobbied the government to increase tariff barriers.Chairman M J C Amarasuriya told shareholders the firm had been able to use a rural credit scheme […]

Sept 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan plantations companies and labour unions failed to agree on a wage hike at talks Thursday and are set to resume negotiations Friday morning, officials said.S Ramanathan of the Joint Plantations Trade Union Centre, one of the three main unions negotiating with employers, said both sides remained far apart […]

Sept 10, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea prices rose sharply at this week™s auctions, driven by supply uncertainty, with labour unions preventing teas leaving hill country estates, possibly creating shortages at future sales, brokers said. Asia Siyaka Commodities said there was more general demand in the catalogues from estates with buyers paying up for […]

Sept 09, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan regional plantations companies (RPCs) and labour unions are to hold another round of talks on a wage hike Thursday to resolve differences that have disrupted production and transport of tea, officials said. Obeysekere said workers continued to disrupt work on estates, disrupting supplies of water and electricity, apart […]

Sept 08, 2009 (LBO) – Talks between Sri Lanka regional plantations companies (RPCs) and estate labour unions on a wage hike have failed, resulting in uncertainty about production and exports, officials said.The two-year collective wage agreement between the unions and RPCs expired in March. Labour unions will meet today to decide their future course of […]

Sept 03, 2009 (LBO) – Action by labour unions on Sri Lanka’s tea estates to disrupt the movement of teas could hamper exports and threatens the industry and entire economy, the Colombo Tea Traders™ Association (CTTA) warned. It would also worsen the current cash-flow problems of plantation companies, the CTTA warned and result in serious […]

Sept 01, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Tea Services, which exports value-added teas under the Dilmah brand, said net profit halved last year and sales are likely to remain poor this year owing to recession.Group net profit in the year ended March 31, 2009 fell 55 percent to 487 million rupees from a year […]

Aug 25, 2009 (LBO) – Renuka Agrifoods, a Sri Lankan exporter of value-added agro-based products, especially coconut, has won a top award for agribusiness.The company, a subsidiary of the listed Renuka Holdings, said in a statement it was named Overall National Winner (Gold Award) at the recent National Agribusiness Awards 2009. It also clinched the […]

Aug 21, 2009 (LBO) – Production of Sri Lanka’s main export commodity, tea, remain well below last year’s level with the July output at 25.1 million kilos being 11 percent lower than the same month a year ago, brokers said. Tea production in other exporting countries is also down this year with the global shortfall […]