Category: Agriculture

Nov 17, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Maskeliya Plantations said it slipped into the red in the September 2009 quarter after costs shot up following a wage hike wrested by estate labour unions. Maskeliya Plantations said half of the wage arrears is to be paid in October 2009 while 25 percent each is payable in […]

Nov 12, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s information technology agency aims to deploy more widely a web-based crop price tracker and use mobile phones to help farmers improve production and marketing, an official said. Chitranganie Mubarak, Senior Programme Head – e-Society, of the Information Communications Technology Agency (ICTA), said the project is part of the […]

Nov 10, 2009 (LBO) – A top Sri Lankan farming firm has called for easier access to land for commercial agriculture in the quest to transform subsistence farmers into viable agri-businesses. Samantha Ranatunga, chief executive of the listed Chemical Industries (Colombo), said improvements in the legal, regulatory and policy environment were needed to promote private […]

Nov 10, 2009 (LBO) – Coco Lanka, a Sri Lankan agri-business firm, said it is eyeing investment opportunities in the former northern and eastern war zones. The company said in a stock exchange filing that group net profit in the September 2009 quarter rose six percent to 66.5 million rupees from a year ago while […]

Nov 06, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Watawala Plantations said September quarter group net profit fell 78 percent to 9.4 million rupees from a year ago but commodity prices were seen strong with a global economic recovery.The firm, a unit of India’s Tata group, said in a stock exchange filing that sales during the September […]

Nov 06, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka needs to develop and maintain consistent policies and provide appropriate support infrastructure to change subsistence farmers into commercially successful agri-businesses, an expert said.“The most important thing the government can do is to ensure consistent policies on agriculture, land, trade and investment,” said Anoma Ariyawardana of the Faculty of […]

Nov 04, 2009 (LBO) – Sri lanka’s Kelani Valley Plantations (KVPL) said a wage hike wrested by estate labour unions has sent it into the red in the September 2009 quarter. The company, which has been recovering from a severe drought earlier in the year, said that it made a loss of 217 million rupees […]

Oct 30, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government, which is ideologically committed to domestic rice production, will import 50,000 metric tons of rice as a buffer against an ‘artificial shortfall’, a senior minister said. But analysts say because prices are kept high and fertilizer is subsidized through heavy government interventions, farmers have no incentive to […]

Oct 28, 2009 (LBO) – Puttalam in Sri Lanka’s northwest is rapidly running out of groundwater due to paddy farming, with the water table falling alarmingly and facing the threat of sea water contamination, an official has warned.“Ground water levels have dropped in the Puttalam district as ground water is being used extensively for paddy […]

Oct 23, 2009 (LBO) – The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said it has partnered with a unit of the listed Chemical Industries (Colombo) (CIC) to help milk farmers take their product to market and increase incomes. The agency said in a statement it has established a dairy farmer network in Punani, in the […]

Oct 22, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s production of black tea in September 2009 fell three percent to 25.5 million kilos from a year ago, according to the Sri Lanka Tea Board’s statistics. The deficit of 42 million kilos makes up for the bulk of the global tea production shortfall that has driven up prices […]

Oct 16, 2009 (LBO) – Prices of Sri Lanka’s high grown teas rose at this week’s Colombo auctions with brokers saying the market is likely to remain buoyed by a continuing global shortage. Some teas grown on the estates of regional plantations companies fetched record prices but many teas from the low grown regions fell, […]