Corrected. Opening para/headline. Sri Lanka's Horana Plantations moves into oil palm "Making note of the changing fortunes of tea and rubber in the international market, the company made a concerted effort to diversify our crops," chief executive Rajive Casie Chitty told shareholders in the annual report.
"In this regard the company made a strategic move to invest in oil palm considering the tremendous potential of the crop.
"This is also expected to offset the constraints facing the rubber sector in the years to come with the sector projected to see price fluctuations, high labour costs and irregular weather patterns.
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Horana Plantations had imported 10,000 preheated seeds from Papua New Guinea and started a nursery at Neuchatel Estate. It will be enough to plant 55 acres.
The firm wanted to have 300 hectares of oil palm by 2015, in Nechatel, Mirishena and Halwatura estates.
The compa