SL awaiting a sample of organic fertiliser to replace the rejected cargo

Sri Lanka was awaiting a sample of organic fertiliser from the Qingdao Seawin Biotech Company (QSBC) of China before the new consignment of fertiliser to replace the rejected cargo which had been contaminated is shipped to the country, Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage said.

The government would purchase a new stock of organic fertiliser from the QSBC notwithstanding its arrogant and aggressive attitude towards Sri Lanka during the issue of supplying a contaminated stock of organic fertiliser, he added.

As such, the QSBC was required to get a quality assurance from Sri Lanka prior to dispatch of the new consignment of organic fertiliser to Sri Lanka.

“If the samples of newly dispatched fertiliser found to be contaminated, we have no hesitation whatsoever to reject it too,” Minister Aluthgamage stressed.

Responding to Daily Mirror as to why the government continues to purchase organic fertiliser from the QSBC despite its arrogant and aggressive behaviour including the blacklisting of the government owned People’s Bank after establishing that the consignment of fertiliser the company had shipped to Sri Lanka had been tested contaminated, Minister Aluthgamage said the QSBC was an internationally famed fertiliser company that supplies organic fertiliser to the US, Canada and the EU.

“We called global tenders last year for the supply of 90,000 metric tons of organic fertilisr and received bids from 22 international companies. We short-listed four companies out of them and only one company agreed to our conditions. It was the QSBC. We signed an agreement with this company to purchase organic fertiliser from them, as they promised that they would supply organic fertiliser after sterilisation. They also deposited US 5 million with us as a fee of guarantee,” Minister Aluthgamage noted.

The problem arose after the laboratory test conducted by the National Plant Quarantine Service (NPQS) of Sri Lanka found the cargo was contaminated with harmful bacteria.

“Sri Lanka has requested a sample of fertiliser for testing before the consignment is shipped. We are awaiting it at the moment,” he said.

However, as an arbitration at the courts, the Attorney General instructed us to come to a compromise and pay 67% of the value of the consignment to the company with the pledge to a resupply of the stock of fertiliser under the obligations of the agreement between the two.

“The problem right now before Sri Lanka is that the QSBC now demands US$ 750 per a metric ton of fertilizer, despite the fact that we have agreed to pay only US$ 345 under the initial agreement. The deal is at the moment is in negation process,” Minister Aluthgamage stressed. (Sandun A. Jayasekera)