Category: Agriculture

July 14, 2009 (LBO) – A US-funded loan scheme has helped Sri Lankan women farmers overcome capital shortages, droughts, and other calamities that threatened their financial security and survival of farms, a US embassy statement said. “These modernizations increase the availability of micro credit loans, allowing the Women™s Co-op to expand its membership and benefit […]

July 10, 2009 (LBO) – A Sri Lankan government aid package for the tea industry to recover from a crash in prices is being disbursed only slowly, a senior industry official said. The industry faced cash flow problems as large volumes remained unsold at the auctions at the time and buyers reneged on contrcats. That […]

July 07, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan coconut cultivators have demanded they be allowed to sell land on which growing coconuts has become unremunerative as nut prices have fallen.Coconut is an important part of the diet of Sri Lankans and the island’s crop is not enough to feed both industries as well as domestic consumers. […]

July 06, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government which restricts the import of rice and has imposed high tariffs on substitute carbohydrates says ‘price controls’ on rice will remain, blaming a milling oligopoly for high prices. Potatoes are charged a 15 rupee tax per kilogram. The government also allocates money to buy rice to keep […]

July 03, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is not opposed to genetically modified (GM) food and is likely to allow their use with certain restrictions, a government minister has said.Hemakumara Nanayakkara, the non-Cabinet minister of agricultural development, said the government was consulting foreign experts on allowing GM food imports and cultivation of GM crops. He […]

July 02, 2009 (LBO) – The head of Sri Lanka’s Chemical Industries (Colombo) (CIC) said the company’s investments in agriculture proved it was profitable but investors should target niche, high-value products as land was limited.The company arranges visits to farms for people interested in entering the sector and also train about 1,000 farmers a year […]

July 01, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea industry has said funds collected through a government cess on exports which are supposed to be used for the benefit of the trade are not forthcoming. Avi de Silva, chairman of the Colombo Tea Traders™ Association, said insufficient monies disbursed from the cess fund were making worse […]

KOTMALE, June 28, 2009 (AFP) – World tea prices have rocketed but along misty tea-growing mountain slopes in Sri Lanka’s central hills, farmers are facing disaster. “Earlier we were concentrating mainly on enhancing yields — drought was not an issue then — but we are now focusing on drought-tolerant varieties,” Gunasekare said. World tea prices […]

June 23, 2009 (LBO) – A new tea factory has been set up in Sri Lanka’s southern Hambantota district where high-priced low grown teas are cultivated by small farmers, the government information department and the Tea Board said.But Hemaratna said the new one in Hambantota had been approved before the decision and was also outside […]

June 23, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Watawala Plantations, whose profits fell sharply last year, has warned talks on a new wage deal with labour could be tough as most firms in the tea industry face cash flow problems. Sathasivam said that it is only to be expected that wages and input prices will increase […]

June 19, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea production in May dropped 22.7 percent to 25.54 million kilos from a year ago owing to the effects of drought, a Tea Board official said. Tea production in the year to May was down 26.9 percent to 105.5 million kilos but a recovery is expected in the […]

June 10, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s James Finlay group said tea exports to Iraq did well in 2008 despite the strife and that it expanded its marketing and launched a new product with higher profit margins. Jayasuriya said the company took advantage of the oil price boom of 2007-08 which increased consumer spending in […]