Negative bacteria in organic fertiliser import
View(s):In a new twist to the fertiliser imports, a state vetting agency has found bacteria in a sample of an organic fertiliser shipment arriving next month.
The National Plant Quarantine Services (NPQS) upon evaluating a sample representing 96,000 metric tonnes of organic fertiliser from China through local agent, Chelina Capital Corporation (Pvt) Ltd, found banned bacteria, an agricultural industry source told the Business Times.
The NPQS, a supervising bureau under the Department of Agriculture sent the sample to the National Fertiliser Secretariat (NFS), a part of the Ministry of Agriculture with their report rejecting approval to import this fertiliser.
In a letter to the NFS, the agency has referred to the solid organic fertiliser samples bearing numbers 388 and 389 submitted to them by the NFS on August 31. “The samples were subjected to standard microbiological tests to find out whether the samples are contaminated with culturable microorganisms,” the letter said explaining the sterility testing method. It added that both samples were found to be highly contaminated with bacteria noting that after laboratory investigations they were found to be not sterile. The same has been found by the Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Board and the Sri Lanka Standards Institution, according to the sources.
Meanwhile, the letter of credit to the tune of US $ 42.816 million was encashed by the Chinese party exacerbating the local importer’s problems further.
The importer is trying to obtain a ‘good’ report from China and submit it to the Ministry of Agriculture to clear the impending shipment. A ministry source said that the local agent is trying to change the procedure of quality evaluation by accepting the Chinese lab report as final. The NPQS has categorically said that if the report comes out positive, and the fertiliser is put to use the bacteria will spread and it will further aggravate the paddy harvesting issues in the country.
Lolitha Abeysinghe, a close relative of a influential government official, is Managing Director of the local company.