Category: Agriculture

Feb 14, 2012 (LBO) – The market for tea in the United States is growing rapidly with the best prospects being in ready-to-drink teas, Joseph Simrany, president of the Tea Association of USA has told Sri Lanka’s tea industry. Even beverage multinationals were shifting towards tea which is also becoming increasingly popular among younger American […]

Feb 10, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea small holders, who produce the bulk of the crop, have said rising costs of production, mainly driven by higher labour costs, is making the sector unsustainable. Our production costs have increased after the latest plantation sector wage increase in 2010. So to remain profitable farmers are cutting […]

Feb 09, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Bogawantalawa Tea Estates Plc said it lost 28 million rupees in the December 2011 quarter from a profit of 69 million rupees a year earlier as margins turned negative. The firm reported a loss of 34 cents for the quarter. In the nine months to December it lost […]

Mar 08, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Watalawa Plantations Plc said cash from the sale of a marketing arm will be used to expand oil palm, boost efficiencies in its tea estates and cut debt, as interest rates continued to rise. Shortly before the budget, through an ad hominen law the state took back land […]

Feb 08, 2012 (LBO) – RAM Ratings Lanka has assigned long- and short-term corporate credit ratings of A and P2 to CIC Holdings (CIC) with a stable outlook on the long-term rating. The group™s ratings are supported by the dominant market positions in its key business areas as well as resilient demand for agriculture related […]

BANGKOK, (Asia Pulse) – The international rice trade is forecast to fall by approximately 1 million tonnes, or 5 per cent, this year as improved harvest prospects in several major importing countries may reduce overall demand after achieving a worldwide record of 34.5 million tonnes (milled basis) in 2011, according to the United Nations’ Food […]

Feb 03, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lankan small farmers are suffering because of a downturn in demand for tea from key markets in the Middle East owing to political unrest, an industry official said. Goonetilleke said 2012 had not started off well for the tea growers and factories producing low grown teas whose main market […]

Feb 02, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea industry is considering developing an ‘all-encompassing’ standard to demonstrate compliance with a plethora of international criteria producers are faced with, an official said. Niraj de Mel, Managing Director of exporter Vanrees Ceylon, said the number of standards producers are compelled to comply with have been increasing in […]

Feb 02, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea plantations industry said investments in improving infrastructure and community services had improve the quality of life of workers who produce the island main export crop. The Planters™ Association of Ceylon (PA), which represents 23 listed Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs), said estate communities in RPC estates have seen […]

Jan 31, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is testing new varieties of tea that have better ability to tolerate drought and disease, the head of the island’s tea research outfit said. Gerry Jayawardena, chairman of the Tea Research Institute, said the new types of tea plants were needed given changes in climate and consumer preferences […]

Jan 31, 2012 (LBO) – A Sri Lanka state decision to allow commercial timber to be harvested will increase the supply of fuel wood for use in tea driers helping cut production costs, an industry body representing private managers said. “We are confident this decision by the government will benefit not only the estate sector […]

Jan 31, 2012 (LBO) – The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said it is giving a 22 million dollar loan to Sri Lanka to rebuilt irrigation works, which will help 7,000 farmer families in former war-torn areas. The money will be used to improve downstream irrigation infrastructure of the Iranamadu reservoir in Kilinocchi in […]