Category: Agriculture

Local tea exporters are eying a 4 million to 6 million kilo order from Iraq under the current World Food Programme (WFP) that is supplying the war impoverished Middle East nation since the US led attracts ended last year.Sri Lanka won a sizable 8 million kilos tender under the previous programme, but is still to […]

The centuries-old therapeutic magic of the Ganoderma mushroom, ranked by the ancients of China and Japan as the king of some 38,000 varieties of mushroom found on the planet, will soon be just a sip away for Sri Lankans. A local company, Magnum Investments (Pvt) Ltd., sole authorised stockist for Malaysias DXN Marketing Sdn. Bhd., […]

The refuse tea export, though illegal, has become the latest threat facing the tea industry, adding to other global pressure. The export demand for fiber and stalk from the tea plant called refuse tea has spawned a whole industry undermining the image and the quality of the brand – Pure Ceylon Tea. The centuries old tea […]

The state is looking at absorbing up to about 25 percent or as much as half the cost of laying rain guards for rubber trees on smallholder estates this year.rn rnLaying the plastic skirt-like rain guards over the areas to be tapped protects it in heavy rainfall areas like the Ratnapura and the Kalutara districts.rn […]

The Premier told a top gathering of planters on Tuesday that the time had come to take over as managers of a value added industry, or lose out to more efficient agro-businesses that would be the industry of the future. “When you say that your contribution to the economy has fallen, it is true because […]

The Tea Association plans to re-haul criteria used to fund new Ceylon tea brands, when it takes over some of the Tea Boards functions this month.Every year, the Tea Board doles out a quantum of money to exporters keen on establishing a brand and who meet the selected criteria. “For example, the Tea Board evaluates […]

Plantation companies are keen to push through a long over due productivity pegged wage formula when estate worker wages come up for negotiations in June 2004. The June negotiations will be a deciding factor for the plantations companies survival as they prepare for a tough year ahead. Work on possible productivity pegged alternatives are already […]

Value added tea exports hit a five year high, moving up to 41 percent of total shipments so far this year. The record is on account of 17.1 mn kgs of tea shipped to Libiya, a 211 percent increase in volume over 2002. Exports to the Middle East state was primarily in tea packets.With total […]

September Customs data indicates that US dollar value of tea exports was US$ 504.9 mn, up form the US$ 499.95 mn posted in 02. Commodity brokers credited the increase to a rise in imported tea blending activities, boosting revenues from the category up US$ 6 mn to US$ 20 mn.Dollar earnings for pure Ceylon tea […]

The Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has asked Sri Lanka to join India or Kenya, if it plans to study the unique variances between tea growing elevations. Sri Lanka called on the FAO to fund the research project at the Inter-Governmental Group (IGG) meeting on tea earlier this year. Tea industry officials say FAO has […]

The tea plantation industry has identified 20 estate bungalows as potential sites for boutique tourist retreats. Mooted in conjunction with the Sri Lanka Tourist Board, the project is also encouraging other plantation companies to diversify into tourism under an Asian Development Bank project that is looking to spread the risk and increase the profit centres […]

Ceylon Tea Services is calling on the government to support a common brand name for the tea trade, through a package of incentives similar to the early 1980s offer.The Dilmah brand rode off the support given in the 1980s programme, today to become a leading international brand. Company officials say it is still not too […]