Category: Agriculture

May 04, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s finance ministry said it has raised taxes on imported milk powder by a further 15 percent or 92 rupees a kilogram, pushing up prices further as domestic dairy farmers threw away fresh milk saying there was no demand. Import taxes work by inflicting harm of the poorest sections […]

April 26, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka™s tea output slipped 22.6 percent in March, over the same period 2011, due to bad weather conditions, a tea broking firm said. Crop figures released by the state-run Tea Board showed output fell to 27.21 million kilos in March, as against 35.13 million kilos recorded in March a […]

April 20, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea prices rose again at this week’s auction after rising in the previous sale but remain below last year’s levels in US dollar terms after a sharp rupee depreciation. “Medium and low grown teas have shown a growth year-on-year in rupee terms,” Forbes & Walker tea brokers said. […]

Apr 20, 2012 (LBO) – China’s Sinohydro Corp. has won a 252 million US dollar contract to build a dam providing water and hydropower in north-central Sri Lanka. A statement said the decision to award the contract to build the headworks of Moragahakanda Reservoir to the Chinese state-owned hydropower engineering and construction company was made […]

Apr 19, 2012 (LBO) – Margins in Sri Lanka’s poultry industry would narrow amid higher capacity but per person chicken consumption would continue to grow, a top poultry firm in the island has said. Three acre farms, a unit of Ceylon Grain Elevators, which is Sri Lanka’s largest day old chick producer said per capita […]

April 12, 2012 (LBO) – Prices of Sri Lanka’s low grown teas, which account for the bulk of the crop, rose again at last week’s auction and are now well above last year’s levels, brokers said. “In view of the present adverse weather conditions, global crop production looks bearish with Kenya, Sri Lanka and North […]

April 10, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lankan plantation company Kotagala Plantations plans to plant 20,000 hectares of rubber in Cambodia, it said in a stock exchange filing. Kotagala Plantations has 12 tea and 11 rubber plantations in Sri Lanka. It has eight rubber manufacturing units, producing pale crepe and sole crepe. The total value of […]

April 03, 2012 (LBO) – Small farmers making rubber in Sri Lanka might be able to get better prices by pooling their efforts and introducing traceability systems that would ensure guaranteed quality to buyers, researchers have found. In Sri Lanka, Lokanathan said about 43 percent of the rubber output is sold as ‘ribbed smoked sheets’ […]

Mar 30, 2012 (LBO) – Tea production in Sri Lanka has been reduced by bad weather with crops in other key origins like Kenya and India also down for the same reason, brokers said. “Due to the extremely hot and humid conditions, plantations are experiencing dwindling intakes,” tea brokers John Keells said. “It is reported […]

Mar 29, 2012 (LBO) – Prices of Sri Lankan tea, especially those grown at low elevations, perked up at this week’s auction, giving some relief to producers battered by rising costs and reduced demand in key markets. “The 3.0 million kilos of low grown teas that came under the hammer this week met with excellent […]

Mar 26, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea prices perked up after the recent depreciation of the rupee against the dollar but unrest in the Middle East, a big market, will act as a drag on further increases, brokers said. “The general trend of declining prices witnessed from the second half of 2011 is expected […]

Mar 22, 2012 (LBO) – Tea production in Sri Lanka in February 2012 fell compared with last year with much of the fall coming from low grown types harvested by small farmers, according to the Tea Board. Low grown teas are produced mainly by small holders who have been hit hard by lower demand from […]