Category: Agriculture

UDAWALAWE, June 14, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Saturday released eight orphaned baby elephants into the jungle after rescuing them from near certain death, wildlife officials said. Official figures show about 150 are killed annually by villagers whose crops are destroyed by marauding elephants that claim the lives of 50 farmers each year. Many […]

June 12, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea prices remained strong for the third week running at this week’s auctions in Colombo with firm demand from the Middle East and the Commonwealth of Independent States, brokers said. The strong market for tea, along with rubber and palm oil, prompted investors on the Colombo bourse to […]

June 09, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Horana Plantations, which is managed by the Ceylon Theatres group has capped management fees to 15 million rupees a year, the company said. In the second stage the estates were sold to managing agents. Despite gaining ownership, the management companies kept the fees and used them to finance […]

June 05, 2008 (2008) Sri Lankan tea prices appear to have bottomed out with widespread demand returning to the Colombo auctions which have been enjoying a strong market this year, brokers said. “There was improved wide spread demand,” Forbes and Walker Tea Brokers said in a report on this week’s auction. “For the second consecutive […]

June 04, 2008 (FAO) Food production in Sri Lanka has been affected not only by high oil prices, bad weather and storage and distribution problem but by terrorism as well, the island’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa has said.Addressing the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) conference on food security in Rome, Rajapaksa called on the UN organisation […]

June 03, 2008 (LBO) – Floods caused by heavy rains in southern Sri Lanka have disrupted cropping on tea plots but no serious shortfall is anticipated unless the rains continue, trade officials said. “Lasting damage is not anticipated unless earthslips cover tea bushes.” He said he expects floods to subside in 2-3 days unless the […]

May 27, 2008 (LBO) – The fall in tea prices in recent weeks owing to the seasonal increase in supply and lower quality has put producers’ margins under pressure, brokers said. It came during the island’s Western quality season when teas from the western slopes of the central hills are at their best quality and […]

May 26, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Carson Cumberbatch group said efficiency improvements and expanded cultivation in its oil palm estates in south-east Asia should help it remain competitive when prices fall off current record highs. The palm oil industry had a good year with prices at record levels owing to strong demand, mainly because […]

May 22, 2008 (LBO) – Tea exporting countries last week agreed to stick to a minimum quality level to prevent oversupply from depressing prices, strengthening Sri Lankan efforts to prevent shipments of so-called ‘refuse tea’, a top official said. Tea Board chairman Lalith Hettiarachchi said producing countries adopted the measures owing to growing concern the […]

May 22, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is to import copra, or dried coconut kernel, to feed the country’s oil mills which are facing high prices and raw material shortfalls, a senior minister said. The cabinet of ministers had approved the import of 45,000 tonnes of metric tonnes of copra to the country, information minister […]

May 21, 2008 (LBO) – The United States which is helping milk farmers in eastern Sri Lanka says more private sector investment is needed to boost production and get better prices for producers. Hess says the dairy sector holds great promise for improving the livelihoods of thousands of Sri Lanka farmers throughout the island, especially […]

May 21, 2008 (LBO) – Chilaw Plantations, a Sri Lanka government owned plantation that was under private management, would be taken back to state control before the end of the month, a senior government official said. Though the bulk of the plantations are now in private hands, some plantations, including Elkaduwa Plantations in the Matale […]