The Ministry of Agriculture and Plantations said that it was decided to discuss the resolution of the problems that have arisen during the implementation of the court settlement between the Chinese Organic Fertilizer Company and the 02 state fertilizer companies in a manner that does not damage the friendly relations between the two countries.
Yesterday (07) a discussion was held at the Ministry of Agriculture under the chairmanship of the Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera to find a solution to the problematic situation caused by this organic fertilizer transaction.
The government claims that this step will be taken for the benefit of the Sri Lankan farming community and accordingly, it will be discussed with the delegation including Mr. Ma Yuxiang, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Government of China.
Those Chinese authorities are going to participate in the 37th Asia Pacific Conference of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to be held in Sri Lanka from 19-22 of this month. The government has decided to hold the discussion there.
In 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture purchased organic fertilizers from a private company in China.
The transaction later became problematic, and various steps were taken from time to time to resolve the issue.
But due to some practical issues that arose during the implementation of that step, it took time to settle the deal.
In particular, the Sri Lankan government had to pay a compensation of 6.9 million US dollars on the charge of damaging the reputation of the Chinese company that supplied the relevant organic fertilizers.
The government says that even though it has been decided to get other fertilizer agricultural equipment to match this amount, since the concerned company produces organic fertilizer only, it has been difficult to get another product that suits the agricultural needs.
The Cabinet of Ministers had decided on September 13, 2022 to request the Minister of Foreign Affairs to come to an amicable agreement between China and Sri Lanka in this regard and submit the most appropriate proposals to the Cabinet to resolve this issue.
