Category: Agriculture

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 […]

May 21, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is in talks with a South African commodity firm to export 20,000 tonnes of rice lying at Paddy Marketing Board, a state-run grain purchasing firm, officials said. Agriculture minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene said discussions have been initiated to sell ‘red-rice’ to South Africa at about 370 dollars a […]

May 21, 2012 (LBO) – Hearing I was off to the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, a friend wrote ‘come back and tell us what you learned.’ This question was on my mind when I heard that Sri Lanka’s Minister of Power and Energy was in Bhutan at the same time. What had we each learned […]

May 21, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s will export its first consignment of maize on May 22, filling a part of a 10,000 tonne order to Taiwan and Canada as domestic production picks up pace, officials said. Sadikeen said as a result buyers were prepared to pay more for his maize. He was exporting at […]

May 17, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s large tea growers have opposed a proposal by major exporters to import teas for re-export to make the island a global hub for blending and packing to retail markets. The Planters’ Association of Ceylon (PA), an industry body of large tea farms producing 30 percent of the tea […]

May 17, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka, one of the world™s biggest exporters of black tea, shipped less brew during the first quarter of this year, but a weak rupee helped maintain export revenues, a report said. From January to March, the tropical island sold 75.8 million kilos of tea to overseas buyers, which was […]

May 15, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s major tea exporters, who have made a proposal to liberalize tea imports to make the island a global centre for tea, say they do not want to import low quality teas for re-export. Sri Lanka’s Tea Exporters Association has made a proposal to liberalize tea imports for re-exports […]

May 14, 2012 (LBO) – Profits at Udapussellawa Plantations, a unit of Sri Lanka’s James Finlay group fell 52 percent in the March 2012 quarter with revenues hit by weak performance in rubber, interim accounts showed. The firm reported earnings of 55 cents for the quarter. Revenues fell 5 percent to 747 million rupees. Cost […]

May 13, 2012 (LBO) – Profits at Sri Lanka’s Balangoda Plantations, a unit of listed Distilleries Corporation fell 49 percent to 67 million rupees in the March 2012 quarter, hit by falls in rubber sales, interim accounts showed. The firm also paid 19 million rupees in management fees down from 52 million a year earlier. […]

May 09, 2012 (LBO) – Nestle Lanka, said its fresh milk collections were up 45 percent in the four months to April from a year earlier, amid claims by some dairy farmers that their milk was not bought by collectors. “Our milk processing facility in Kurunegala is now running at its fullest capacity¦and we are […]