Category: Agriculture

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 […]

Dec 08, 2011 (LBO) – Fish exports from Sri Lanka, which is trying to make the industry a key foreign exchange earner, are being affected by slowing demand in key Western markets, a top export promotion official said. But demand is expected to bounce back, said Janaka Ratnayaka, chairman of the Export Development Board (EDB). […]

Dec 02, 2011 (LBO) – Demand for Sri Lanka’s low grown teas, which make up the bulk of the crop, perked up at this week’s Colombo auctions after increased orders from key overseas buyers and the snap devaluation of the rupee, brokers said. “Despite Sri Lanka tea production in the month of October recording a […]

Nov 29, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka plans to set up more dedicated ‘agro export zones’ to help promote export of agricultural produce by private sector exporters. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce said in a statement it would set up the zones focusing on private-public partnerships between the government and the private sector. The […]

Nov 25, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea prices fell at this week’s Colombo auctions with reduced demand and brokers saying the island is unlikely to match last year’s annual production owing to a slower recovery in crops. A key buyer also kept out of the first day of the auctions owing transport problems involving […]

Nov 23, 2011 (LBO) – A listed Sri Lankan sugar plantation that is among businesses taken over by government under a new expropriation law has said the seizure was illegal as it does not fall within the ambit of the new regulation. The statement said action by the officers of the state to enter the […]

Nov 21, 2011 (LBO) – The state will give incentives to process rice for export, aquaculture in especially in former war torn areas in the east of the island, president Mahinda Rajapaksa said presenting a budget for 2012. Rajapaksa said funding for improved seed production and agriculture extension services for paddy will be increased. Rice […]

Nov 21, 2011 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan government is to take back 37,000 acres of unused land from regional plantations companies and distribute it to small farmers, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said. The lands to be re-distributed will be given small holder families for 30 years. The small farmers will also be given low cost […]

Nov 18, 2011 (LBO) – A seed bank to be set up in Sri Lanka will operate under common standards to be developed by countries in the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC). Information minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the cabinet of ministers had given approval for the seed bank to be established in Sri […]

Nov 12, 2011 (LBO) – Theft on spice plantations in Sri Lanka has become a major problem and amounts to ‘organised robbery’, Sarada de Silva, head of a Sri Lankan grouping representing the spice industry said. One plantation company which had nurtured a large extent of cinnamon, the island’s main spice, found their first crop […]