Category: Agriculture

May 08, 2014 (LBO) – Profits at Sri Lanka’s Talawakelle Plantations Plc, fell 60 percent to 34 million rupees in the March 2014 quarter from a year earlier as margins on tea estates declined and hydro power revenues fell, interim accounts showed.The group reported earnings of 1.44 rupees per share for the quarter. Revenues rose […]

May 07, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka™s Ceylon Grain Elevators group, which has interests in feed milling and poultry said it lost 7.8 million rupees in the March 2014 quarter as demand for feed fell, though day old chick demand was recovering. But subsidiary Three Acre Farms which sells day old chicks said profits rose […]

May 5, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is looking at ways to improve its dairy sector with New Zealand following a visit by a delegation which met industry officials in the island, a trade chamber said.New Zealand is a top dairy exporter in the world. Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said a delegation with officials from […]

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 […]