Category: Agriculture

May 26, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Carson Cumberbatch group said efficiency improvements and expanded cultivation in its oil palm estates in south-east Asia should help it remain competitive when prices fall off current record highs. The palm oil industry had a good year with prices at record levels owing to strong demand, mainly because […]

May 22, 2008 (LBO) – Tea exporting countries last week agreed to stick to a minimum quality level to prevent oversupply from depressing prices, strengthening Sri Lankan efforts to prevent shipments of so-called ‘refuse tea’, a top official said. Tea Board chairman Lalith Hettiarachchi said producing countries adopted the measures owing to growing concern the […]

May 22, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is to import copra, or dried coconut kernel, to feed the country’s oil mills which are facing high prices and raw material shortfalls, a senior minister said. The cabinet of ministers had approved the import of 45,000 tonnes of metric tonnes of copra to the country, information minister […]

May 21, 2008 (LBO) – Chilaw Plantations, a Sri Lanka government owned plantation that was under private management, would be taken back to state control before the end of the month, a senior government official said. Though the bulk of the plantations are now in private hands, some plantations, including Elkaduwa Plantations in the Matale […]

May 21, 2008 (LBO) – The United States which is helping milk farmers in eastern Sri Lanka says more private sector investment is needed to boost production and get better prices for producers. Hess says the dairy sector holds great promise for improving the livelihoods of thousands of Sri Lanka farmers throughout the island, especially […]

May 16, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea prices fell at this week’s auction because of seasonal factors such as bigger volumes and lower quality, brokers said. A larger than usual volume of 8.2 million kilos came under the hammer this week with the quantities inflated by a backlog of teas held over from the […]

May 13, 2008 (LBO) – Fonterra Brands Lanka is investing 1.2 billion rupees to double yoghurt output and boost local raw milk supplies to cushion against volatile international prices, an official said. “The Sri Lankan yoghurt market has experienced double digit growth in the past five years and consumers now eat more than 12,000 metric […]

May 12, 2008 (LBO) – Pelwatte Sugar Industries said its March quarter net loss increased 57 percent pushing annual losses to more than half-a-billion rupees, while revenues fell. . Annual revenuea fell to 1.3 billion from 2.3 billion rupees, with a net loss of 574 million rupees for the year ended March 2008. The firm’s […]

May 07, 2008 (LBO) – High import duty rates and a ban on packet tea imports by Iran is preventing Sri Lankan tea exporters from better penetrating a potentially lucrative market, industry officials said. Instead, a lot of the Sri Lankan tea that reaches Iran is smuggled over its borders, with Dubai as the region’s […]

MADRID, May 3, 2008 (AFP) – The Asian Development Bank on Saturday promised financial help for nations fighting the global food price crisis and attacked plans for a rice cartel.Loans will help countries subsidise the price of food staples for the poor, ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda said on the first day of the banks four-day […]

May 02, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea prices have begun to decline with the end of the western quality season and increasing crops, brokers said. “The market is coming down because of high crops and because seasonal quality is over,” said a broker. “Now the Colombo market is very attractive, almost in line with […]

BERLIN, April 14, 2008 (AFP) – Massive production of biofuels is “a crime against humanity” because of its impact on global food prices, a UN official said Monday on German radio.. “Producing biofuels today is a crime against humanity,” UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food Jean Ziegler told Bayerischer Runfunk radio. Using arable […]