Category: Agriculture

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 […]

Nov 07, 2011 (LBO) – Profits at Tea Smallholder Factories Plc, a unit of Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings fell 68 percent to 8. 3 million rupees in the September 2011 quarter from a year earlier, amid falling revenues. Tea Smallholder Factories Ltd is 37.6 percent owned by John Keells Holdings, 24. 3 percent by […]

Nov 04, 2011 (LBO) – Savings made by Sri Lankan banks after tax cuts that government ordered be set aside for investments could be used to revive the ailing tea industry, a top exporter has suggested. Government support is needed in long-term financing and regulatory changes to “re-align” the traditional tea sector and help it […]

November 4, 2011 (AFP) – Government supporters in Sri Lanka have stormed and occupied a private sugar company earmarked for nationalisation under a controversial law, owners said on Friday. Sri Lanka has been trying to woo investors after defeating Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 and declaring an end to nearly four decades of ethnic violence […]