Category: Agriculture

Aug 20, 2012 (LBO) – The Japanese government handed over a 11.7 million rupee ($90,000) grant to a community development organization to revive agro-based livelihoods in the conflict affected Vavuniya district, in the north of the island. People™s Livelihood Development Foundation (PLDF) Monday received the 11.7 million rupee grant under Japan™s Grant Assistance for Grassroots […]

Aug 17, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is to hold the 40th International pepper conference in Colombo later this, Cabinet spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said. Sri Lanka produces some of the best high quality sought after pepper, which have been sought after buy foreign citizens for centuries. Pepper is cultivated over an area of 32,800 hectares […]

July 23, 2012 (LBO) – Tea Smallholder Factories Plc, a unit of Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings had posted 23. 9 million rupees in profits in the June 2012 quarter, turning around from a loss of 9. 1 million rupees a year earlier. The firm reported earnings of 80 cents a share for the quarter. […]

May 16, 2012 (LBO) – October rubber futures in Tokyo fell to a 4-month low of 265 yen a kilogram (3,317 dollars a tonne) before settling at 270. 1 yen on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, a media report said. Bloomberg newswires said rubber was still up 2. 5 percent in 2012. September futures on the […]

July 09, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka owes fertiliser importers some 16.0 billion rupees for purchasing fertiliser to be distributed among farmers growing a wide range of crops, a local fertiliser company said. Agri Expansion Weerasekara said the company was scouting for export opportunities and is investing 200 million rupees for its new agri-venture in […]

July 09, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka, one of the world™s largest tea exporters, has been urged to replace its ageing politicised wage structure with a productivity linked model, to sustain the viability of the centuries old brew. Trade unions, backed by ethnic minority political groups, prefer a fixed day™s wage instead of a productivity-linked […]

June 29, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka said it had banned the export of rice amid a drought to ensure that the “country will have adequate rice stock at affordable prices”, in the latest in a series of ad hoc state interventions in agriculture. Sri Lanka only exports small volumes of rice targeting expatriates or […]

June 20, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea production fell 8. 4 percent to 30.8 million kilograms in May 2012 from a year earlier, the state tea promotion office said as the country was hit by dry weather. High grown tea fell to 7.36 million kilos from 9.0 kilos, mediums fell to 5.58 million kilos […]

June 05, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s CIC Holdings PLC, with investments from agriculture to paints, plans to invest over 14 million dollars in the coming months, to expand dairy, poultry and healthcare business, an official said. The dairy segment, which includes fresh milk production to yoghurts, will see a 6. 5 million dollar investment […]

May 24, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka, one of the world™s biggest tea exporters, produced and shipped less of the brew for the four months to April this year, due to poor weather and unrest in key markets, official figures showed. Tea, which grows across the island™s central hillside regions and in the south, saw […]

May 22, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Nestle Lanka Plc, a unit of a Swiss food firm said profits in the March 2012 quarter fell 25 percent to 461 million rupees as the firm was hit by higher energy prices and currency depreciation. Nestle Lanka reported earnings of 8.60 rupees per share for the quarter. […]

May 22, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hapugastenne and Udapussellawa Plantations, controlled by James Finlays said losses were making it difficult to replant tea but they were trying to improve productivity and was expanding rubber and timber. Hapugastenne Plantations lost 214.00 million rupees in the year to March 2012, reversing a profit of 281 million […]