Category: Agriculture

Nov 16, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Tea Board Friday announced it was waiving documentation fees for exporters who use an electronic export document processing system in an effort to encourage more automation. . The system, designed and implemented by eServices Lanka, enables tea exporters to submit documents electronically seeking approval for export without having […]

Nov 07, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s domestic agriculture and processing industry was promised sweeping relief by the government including tax waivers and loan write-offs and more cash for subsidized fertilizer, in the 2008 budget. The politically important rice farmers would continue to get any type of fertilizer at 350 rupees per bag while urea […]

Nov 01, 2007 (LBO) – Rising low grown tea prices have helped boost Sri Lanka’s Tea Smallholder Factories’ second quarter profit net profit 151 percent to 33.5 million rupees compared with the same period a year ago. Revenue for the quarter ended September 30, 2007 shot up 62 percent to 578 million rupees, according to […]

Oct 23, 2007 (LBO) –Hayleys subsidiary Talawakelle Tea Estates has reported a sharp fall in profits up to September this year as it struggles to recover from the effects of a strike which crippled production late last year and bad weather. Production fell even after the strike as estates were forced to prune and discard […]

COLOMBO, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is seeking international expertise to conduct seismic surveys off the southern tip of the island in a hunt for new oil deposits, a senior minister said Friday.The country continues to import all its petroleum.“Initial seismic surveys shows that there are prospects for oil deposits in the southern […]

Oct 08, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea exports up to August this year were sharply lower than in the same 2006 period but export earnings were higher, a tea broker said. The island exported a total of 200.8 million kg of tea in January-August 2007, 15 percent lower than the 218.1 million kg shipped […]

Oct 04, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has slapped a new tax on rubber products to raise funds for rubber sector development officials said, amid industry protests that cash from an existing levy was not being ploughed back to the sector. Since then however, natural rubber prices have more than doubled, making the sector an […]

Oct 02, 2007 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka Tea Board plans to set up a tea testing laboratory to make sure that chemical residues and impurities do not get into exports, Tea Board chairman Lalith Hettiarachchi said. . The lab will in future handle all the testing done by the Board some of which is […]

Oct 01, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea brokers are considering mechanizing preparation of samples to speed up the work to handle ever increasing volumes. Brokers today prepare and distribute a million two once samples of tea a week for buyers to see and taste before deciding to bid at the Colombo auctions, the world’s […]

Sept 25, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea production for August was higher than the same month last year but the island is still to fully recover from the disruption in harvesting caused by a strike and bad weather, officials said. The total production for August rose 11 percent to 24.2 million kg compared with […]

Sept 22, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s plantations industry is looking at a new employment model to overcome difficulties caused by the existing 100-year-old system that relies on huge resident labour forces, industry officials said. The new model, being tried by a few firms, allows workers to cultivate their own plots of tea and sell […]

Sept 20, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s plantations are warning that the sector is losing its appeal to serious investors at a time when fresh capital is urgently needed to replant crops and modernise factories. “These restrictions coupled with the rapidly increasing cost of production, consequent to increases in costs of fuel, energy, fertilizer and […]