Category: Agriculture

Jan 30, 2012 (LBO) – Poverty levels in Sri Lanka’s tea industry are still too high and need to be addressed as a matter of priority, a senior official of the Food and Agriculture Organisation said. The FAO is also involved in the island’s tea industry and is supporting the National Institute of Plantations Managements […]

Jan 27, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Watawala Plantations said December 2011 quarter net profit fell 39 percent to 158 million rupees from a year ago, with a profit expected in the last quarter as well after losses earlier in the year. The company said that strong palm oil prices had helped cushion a fall […]

Jan 27, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s production of CTC (crush, tear, curl) type teas, used mainly in tea bags, rose sharply in 2011, although overall output was slightly lower than the record crop in 2010, brokers said. The Sri Lanka Tea Board said annual production for 2011 was 328.3 million kilos, about one percent […]

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 […]