Category: Agriculture

Jan 23, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Elpitiya Plantations Plc has formed a joint venture with China’s Yunnan Dianhong Group to produce ‘Chinese Specialty Tea’ for export, the island’s investment promotion agency said. The joint venture firm Elpitiya Dianhong Jin Ya Tea Company (Private) Limited has been formed with Dianhong International Limited, Hongkong, the BOI […]

Jan 18, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run National Livestock Development Board is spending 28.537 million US dollars to import 4,500 dairy cows, of which 500 animals have already arrived in the country, information minister Keheliya Ramukwelle said.The cows will be distributed among three farms in Bopaththalawa, Nikaweratiya and Sirignapatha. Under the first stage 500 […]

Jan 16, 2013 (LBO) – Japan will grant a dredger to Sri Lanka’s state-run fishery harbhour agency to keep navigational channels clear for fishermen, the Japanese aid agency said.The Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) said a study team sent at Sri Lanka’s request and officials of Ceylon Fishery Harbhour Corporation had found that existing dredging […]

Jan 14, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is to set up another plant to can fish while existing tax protected factories are importing raw fish from China to prevent extinction of some species, a media report said.Sri Lanka’s The Sunday Times newspaper said a new factory was planned with possible Chinese investment in Galle in […]

Dec 27, 2012 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka unit of Nestlé, a Swiss-based food group said it had paid 4 billion rupees (31 million US dollars) to dairy and coconut farmers in the island to buy milk and coconuts during 2012. The firm has a network of 23,000 dairy farmers and 5,000 coconut farmers supplying […]

Dec 20, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Kahawatta Plantations Plc, has increased production and boosted employee incomes by trying out an ‘out grower’ model of allowing workers to farm tea on estate land on their spare time. The statement said workers go to work in gem pits and other work and only about 40 percent […]

Dec 06, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s rice farmers who have been hit by a recent drought will be given 371 million rupees worth of seed paddy by tax payers, enough to plant 58,000 hectares of land, the finance ministry said. The state has given land to farmers, built infrastructure pumping vast volumes of money, […]

Dec 04, 2012 (LBO) – India has gifted 175 boats and equipment worth 71 million rupees to war refugees in Mannar in northeastern Sri Lanka, the Indian High Commission (embassy) in Colombo said. . Indian envoy Ashok K. Kantha has recalled that in 2009 India has gifted boats to fishermen in Vaharai in the Eastern […]

Nov 29, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Sunshine Holdings, which has interests in tea and oil palm said it was in talks with Pyramid Wilmar (Pvt) Ltd, a Colombo based unit of two Singaporean firms, to use their expertise and distribution chains. . Sunshine Holdings said in a stock exchange filing that it was exploring […]

WADDUWA, Sri Lanka, Nov 12, 2012 (AFP) – Clambering between high trees carrying a knife in the search for sap to brew alcoholic drinks is a young man’s game — and Sri Lanka’s ageing toddy tappers say the craft is dying. “I don’t know for how long I can continue this because it is becoming […]

Nov 08, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should cut high food taxes which will make proteins more accessible to the poor and reduce malnutrition among small children, science and technology minister Tissa Vitharana has said. “I looked into this question of nutrition, and there is evidence that there is some increase of acute mal-nutrition, really […]

Nov 08, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government will increase subsidies to encourage small farmers expand tea, rubber and coconut cultivation, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said. Small farmers account for the bulk of the production of the three main agricultural export commodities, Rajapaksa, who is also finance minister, told parliament while presenting the budget for 2013. […]