Category: Agriculture

May 04, 2014 (LBO) – Agalawatte Plantations, a unit of Sri Lanka’s Mackwoods group said it will expand its oil palm cultivation which had become a key contributor to gross profits in 2013, amid declining rubber prices and weather affected tea. Palm oil crop had increased to 7.4 million tonnes in 2012 up from 6.8 […]

Apr 17, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s rubber growers are being hit by falling world prices with production volumes also dropping due to a drought within the country, an industry association said.Deputy Chairman Planters™ Association of Ceylon (PA) and CRTA Vice Chairman S. S. Poholiyadde said in a statement that rubber prices have halved over […]

Mar 31, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea production has dropped 10 percent to 22.4 million kilograms in February 2014 from a year earlier, and the March crop is also expected to be fall amid a drought, a tea brokerage has said. In 2014 tea prices have been firmer. The national sales average rose to […]

Mar 24, 2014 (LBO) – A widely used weedicide linked to a killer kidney disease in Sri Lanka will only be curbed in areas where the disease is prevalent, and there will be no blanket ban, a media report said.Sri Lanka’s Sunday Times newspaper said a decision on a blanket ban has been changed following […]

Mar 18, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Watawala Plantations Plc said a management agreement with Estate Management Services (Pvt) Ltd, its key shareholder has been ended.In Sri Lanka’s commercial tea plantations date back from the British colonial era where third party ‘agency houses’ used to charge management fees on an arm’s length basis. The firm […]

Mar 02, 2014 (LBO) – A herbicide developed by US-based Monsanto and contaminated fertilizer may be behind an epidemic of mystery kidney disease in Sri Lanka and South America where rice and sugarcane is grown, a research study has suggested.The paper by Channa Jayasumana (Rajarata University, Sri Lanka), Sarath Gunatilake (California State University, USA) and […]

Dec 17, 2013 (LBO) – Export revenues of spices from Sri Lanka have risen 40 percent from a year earlier to 274 million US dollars in the first 10 months of 2013, an industry body said. Two centuries ago spices and areca nut were Sri Lanka’s key exports contributing to thje majority of government revenues. […]

Nov 26, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has been named as a country that made progress over curbing illegal fishing by the European Commission, allowing the country to export to the European Union at least until next March. Sri Lanka was previously hit with a yellow card earlier, and fisheries minister Rajitha Senaratne has lobbied […]

Nov 14, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Grain Elevators group, which has operations in feed-milling said it returned to profits in the September 2013 quarter helped by lower soya prices despite a drop in sales.Three Acre Farms had also exported parent day old chicks and hatchable eggs to the region, helping boost margins. The […]

Sept 18, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Tess Agro, a fish exporter has made a 117 million rupee cash call to finance a European marketing arm and a domestic project.. The Tess Agro said it wants to sell 60 million ordinary shares at 1.50 rupees to shareholders at the rate of one for every three […]

Sept 16, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka-based Tess Agro Plc, an exporter of sea fish said it had set up a marketing unit in Belgium to gain direct access to the European Union and better prices.But there was a 35.7 million rupee gain on property revaluation. The key markets of the firm are the EU, […]

Sept 14, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s large plantations, especially those growing tea, are facing labour shortages, with young people moving out to cities in search of other jobs, a senior industry official said.During feudal and European colonial times Sri Lanka had to import labour from India for many activities ranging from tapping toddy, peeling […]