Category: Agriculture

August 3, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea output dipped 2.0 percent for the six months to June, after good rainfall brought in a record harvest in 2005, a commodity broker said Thursday. Total production in June slipped 10.7 percent to 26.24 million kilos over the same period 2005, led by a 20.7 percent drop in […]

July 20, 2006 (LBO) – A backlog of tea shipments and falling prices due to trade union strikes at the Colombo port has vessels bypassing Sri Lanka and tea exporters worried over tight cash flows. Trade union action and go-slows at the port over a wage hike entered its tenth day on Thursday, with no solution […]

July 11 (LBO) – James Finlays has upped capacity at its tea factory, turning out bio-degradable tea bags to break into new markets in the United States and Europe. Finlays is about the sixth largest tea bag exporter in the country and the largest exporter to Japan, producing 1.5 million tea bags a day. With three […]

NAIROBI, June 26, 2006 (AFP) – Kenyan tea production dipped in May and is expected to fall between 10 and 16 percent in 2006 compared with a year earlier due to less rainfall and the lingering effects of a just-ended drought, officials said Monday. The Tea Board of Kenya (TBK) said May output dropped by […]

June 25, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lankan plantation companies are expected to rake in the riches in the ongoing rubber boom, with analysts expecting stocks to trade at higher multiples than in the past. Crepe is about 35 percent of local production and liquid latex used to make gloves, about 30 percent, most of which is […]

June 21, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka shipped more tea to overseas markets for the five month to May, earning a record 35 billion rupees, a commodity broker said Wednesday. For the five month period, the tropical island shipped 128.0 million kilos, higher than 112.76 million kilos sold during the same period 2005. The shipments helped […]

June 20 (LBO) – The government is in talks with Russia to source the country’s fertiliser needs at lower cost, bypassing local agents for international fertilizer companies. Direct buying would save the government money, Athuluwage said. The state owned Lanka Fertiliser Company usually calls for tenders for local supplies of fertiliser, with needs usually met through […]

June 15 (LBO) – Namunukula Plantations said Thursday that it had subleased its Uva range of estates to Tusker Bottling Company for 50 million rupees.With the sub-lease, TBCL also took over borrowings of 350 million rupees from Namunukula, the company said in a statement to the Colombo Stock Exchange.The up-country estates were handed over to […]

June 12 (LBO) – Rubber prices in Sri Lanka are expected to stay strong this week as bad weather and a resulting supply crunch drive prices upwards, brokers say.Annual monsoon rains until August is affecting tapping on plantations, with supplies usually falling by as much as fifty percent at this time of the year. Brokers […]

June 09 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is in talks with Russia to lower import duties on tea, as Russia begins freeing up trade in a bid to enter the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Russia, Sri Lanka’s largest market for tea, has offered to lower tariffs of 20 percent on value added black and green tea exports […]

HIKKADUWA, Sri Lanka, June 8, 2006 (AFP) – Eighteen months after the tsunami uprooted centuries-old cinnamon plantations in a country where the golden cash crop is a vital source of income, the trees are sprouting “like magic”. Part-time cinnamon planter Wimalawathi Mendis thought her modest plot was doomed when much of her village, Malawenna, just […]

June 7, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea crop for the four-months to April grew to an all time high of 2.9 percent or 108.52 million kilos, helped on by good rainfall, a commodity brokering house said Wednesday. Black tea production for April however, slipped 5-percent to 30.59 million kilos, Asia Siyaka Commodity brokers said.   […]