Category: Agriculture

Sept 10, 2007 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka shares closed lower Monday after rising at the opening with interest in John Keells Holdings helping to improve turnover. The market turnover was over 375 million rupees while the All Share Index closed two points lower at 2,544.24. The Milanka Index closed down 2.65 points at 3,458.77. […]

Sept 06, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has started a programme to encourage the cultivation and consumption of cashew nuts, saying it is good for health and has a good export potential. “Cashew is a crop that will help eradicate poverty as it grows in difficult areas and is easy to grow, not needing much […]

Sept 03, 2007 (LBO) – Tea producing countries should aim to produce better quality, certified tea and not try artificial supply controls to raise prices, an official from the multinational Unilever said. Ian Neathercoat, Senior Resident Manager, Supply Chain Compliance Controller, Unilever Supply Chain Company, Europe, advocates the creation of a two-tier tea market producers […]

September 03, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is tendering three off-shore oil exploration blocks in October and exploration firms are expected to begin work in 2008, petroleum minister A H M Fowzie said. Sri Lanka has identified eight off-shore exploration blocks in the north eastern Mannar basin of which two had been reserved for China […]

Sept 1, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea plantations companies have been urged to grow their own fuel as a means of reducing costs at a time when fossil fuel prices are escalating. Growing crops like gliricidia would not only provide a cheap source of firewood to meet energy requirements but also nutrients for the […]

August 31, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea industry in the southern part of the region where low grown teas are cultivated mainly by smallholders have too many factories chasing the available leaf supply, a top industry official said. Smallholders, who now produce more than half the island’s tea crop, have grown rapidly in the […]

August 30, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea industry should slash the vast acreages under cultivation by half and improve yields as it was becoming unaffordable to run huge plantations, a top tea plantations company official said Thursday. “No longer can we have huge plantations,” said Dan Seevaratnam, Executive Deputy Chairman of the listed Kahawatte […]

August 28, 2007 (LBO) – Kenya is hoping to learn from Sri Lanka to add value to tea and earn more revenue in the face of sharp falls in prices for her tea, reports from the East African nation said. Economic analysts have earlier said that Sri Lanka’s efficient shipping, as well as the flexibility […]

August 27, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hapugastenne Plantations said net profit for the June quarter shot up 472 percent to 170 million rupees with the bottom line being boosted by high low grown tea prices and profit from asset sales. Revenue for the quarter was up 39 percent to 705 million rupees, according to […]

Aug 24, 2007 (LBO) – Tea bag exporter Ceylon Tea Services Ltd., part of the Dilmah brand group, said net profit fell 7.1 percent to 152 million rupees for the quarter ended June 30, 2007. Revenue fell 1.2 percent to 738 million rupees in the same period, according to interim results. The company is one […]

August 24 (LBO) – Experts from the world’s top tea producing and consuming countries will meet in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo next week to discuss issues concerning sustainable production and food safety standards. This meeting, being organized by the Sri Lanka Tea Research Institute with the Tea Board and CTTA, will see scientists from […]

August 24 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea trade, the island’s main export earner, has said funds raised from a tax on exports are still not being ploughed back adequately to develop the industry despite numerous complaints. Delays and inadequate disbursements are hindering factory modernization work and tea promotion in highly competitive global beverage markets, exporters […]