Category: Agriculture

Jan 25, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will host a key meeting of officials from major tea producing and consuming nations in a United Nations body next week, helping boost its image as it starts a global marketing campaign. The 20th Session of Food and Agriculture Organisation™s Inter-Governmental Group on Tea will meet in Colombo […]

Jan 24, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Tea Smallholder Factories Plc, a unit of John Keells Holdings said it lost a million rupees in the December 2012 quarter compared with a 41 million a year earlier, as revenues fell. . Revenues fell 17 percent to 510 million rupees in the quarter while cost of sales […]

Jan 20, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s plantation companies are in crisis with high costs and falling commodity prices that only greater labour and land productivity can overcome, an official said. The island 150-year-old plantation industry needs to rationalize land and labour utilization and management, said Anura Ekanayake, a former Director of Planning at the […]

Jan 17, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Renuka Agri Foods plans to buy control of Richlife Dairies Limited, a manufacturer of dairy and fruit products, a stock exchange filing said. Renuka Agri Foods said it has signed an agreement to purchase 76 percent of the issued capital of Richlife Dairies. The deal grants Renuka Agri […]

Dec 29, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka and India will hold talks on resolving a fishing dispute which escalated after the end of a 30-year war, when a joint working group meets in January. Fisheries minister Rajitha Senaratne said Sri Lanka will hold talks with an Indian delegation made up of state and central government […]

Dec 21, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has asked Russia to cut import duty on tea in a phased manner following its admission to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) after 18 years of negotiations, officials said. Sri Lanka’s tea industry has been lobbying Russia to reduce import duty to enable exporters better access for value-added […]

Dec 20, 2011 (LBO) – Russia’s entry in to the World Trade Organization last week will enable high import duty on value-added tea to be reduced, creating better access for Sri Lankan teas, industry officials said. “Russia is our largest market for tea and we would like to increase value-added teas being sent to Russia […]

Dec 19, 2011 (LBO) – A specialty tea contest held in Russia recently would help Sri Lankan exporters promote Ceylon teas in the biggest market for the island’s main agricultural export, officials said. ‘Blind tasting’ of the teas was done by a panel of 12 tea tasters with 66 entries being sent to Russia for […]

Dec 16, 2011 (LBO) – Tea producing and consuming countries will seek to agree on a common standard for pesticide residue levels in tea during a meeting of the United Nations Food and Agriculture organisation body in Colombo early next year. Different MRL standards in markets like Japan and Germany had created problems for exporters […]

Dec 15, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will go ahead with a new law requiring transport of fruits and vegetables in plastic crates but would look into any shortcomings after protests by farmers and traders led to shortages in the capital. “We’re not changing the policy,” declared Keheliya Rambukwella, media minister and spokesman for the […]

Dec 12, 2011 (LBO) – Dubai-based S S Lootah International said it had inked a partnership with Sri Lanka’s CIC Agri Business to supply ornamental plants to the UAE and later jointly expand into tissue culture with an eye on markets in Africa. The statement said CIC Agribusiness works with 25,000 rural farmers. “We will […]

Dec 09, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has emerged as the top tuna loin exporter to the European Union and is ramping up production aiming to earn a billion dollars from fishery exports in nine years, an official said. Senaratne said the island had cracked down on illegal and destructive fishing methods like bottom trawling […]