Category: Agriculture

June 06, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s regional plantations companies and estate labour unions have agreed to renew a two-year wage deal with a worker’s basic wage being raised to 380 rupees from 285 previously. Muthu Sivalingam, president of the Ceylon Workers Congress, the biggest union, told Vimasuma.com, our sister news website, that under the […]

June 05, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Fisheries Corporation, a state enterprise that retails fish has lost 59 million rupees in 2010 and has to better manage assets such as cold stores and freezer trucks, a finance ministry report said. The firm had the challenge of playing a ‘market stabilizer’ role with a market […]

May 30, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Kegalle Plantations, which gets most of its revenues from rubber, said profits rose 14 percent to 270 million rupees with revenues growing 30 percent to 900 million rupees. Tea is a most labour intensive crop compared with rubber or coconut. The firm was charged 197 million rupees in […]

May 30, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s CIC Holdings group said net profit for the financial year to March 2011 rose 58 percent to 929 million rupees from a year ago driven mainly by its agriculture and livestock business. Sales rose 27 percent to 21 billion rupees, the company said in a stock exchange filing. […]

May 27, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has told a regional fish management body that it is cracking down on illegal fishing that is seen hurting efforts to prevent over-exploitation of fish stocks and conservation. The crackdown comes in the wake of concern that illegal fishing hurt management measures aimed at controlling and monitoring fish […]

May 24, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s listed Watawala Plantations said profits rose 49. 6 percent to 642 million rupees in the year to March 2011 with revenues growing 9.0 percent amid higher commodity prices and profits from its retail unit. Managing director Vish Govindasamy said higher rubber prices pushed profits from the division to […]

May 24, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea production is increasing despite a downturn in April compared with a year ago with annual output expected to hit a new high. Tea production fell 5.6 percent to 28.5 million kilos in April from a year ago when output had been boosted by favourable weather and high […]

May 20, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Tea Board aims to hire an international agency for global surveillance of the island’s Ceylon tea brand under the ‘Lion’ logo to prevent its misuse and sale of counterfeits, an official said. The planned action comes in the wake of the island launching new logos for Ceylon tea […]

May 19, 2011 (LBO) – The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is giving a 1. 5 million grant under its Food for Peace (FFP) programme to help more than 22,000 flood victims in eastern Sri Lanka. Under the programme the US development agency will assist flood victims by paying them to repair small-scale […]

May 16, 2011 (LBO) – High rubber prices have helped Sri Lanka’s Kelani Valley Plantations increase March 2011 quarter net profit by 120 percent to 246 million rupees from a year ago. Earnings per share for the March 2011 quarter were 7. 24 rupees compared with 3.29 rupees the previous year. Sales of the firm, […]

May 13, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea prices fell at the Colombo auctions this week mostly because of lower quality and larger volumes in some categories and while trouble in the Middle East also had some effect, brokers said. “Until such time normalcy returns to the Middle East, it is unlikely that Low Grown […]

May 13, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka, the world’s biggest exporters of cinnamon, needs 10,000 more peelers to overcome an acute shortage of labour, members of the trade have told the ministry of industry and commerce. Of the 30,000 hectares of cinnamon grown in Sri Lanka, only one-fifth are peeled twice a year with 70 […]