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Chinese fertiliser company makes tough demands to withdraw shipment
The Chinese organic fertiliser manufacturer Qingdao Biotech Group Co. Ltd has put forwarded a set of conditions to the Agriculture Ministry, demanding the payment of 70 percent of agreed price in the original tender agreement and additional freight charges.
The company is trying to push through a controversial shipment of organic fertiliser and has placed fresh demands for the return of its ship as the controversy over the shipment continues.
The Chinese company demands that it should be paid seventy percent (USD 5.6 million) of the initial tender agreement (USD 8 million), USD 36 million as freight cost and a joint statement with the Ministry to pronounce that the shipment was turned down on an import permit dispute, not on the quality of the fertiliser, according to ministerial sources.
In addition to these conditions, the company also indicated that the shipment should not be subjected to fresh testing of samples in future.
The demands were made in a November 9 letter sent by Chinese company director Song Hai Meito to Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage and State Minister Shasheendra Rajapaksa. The letter was copied to chairmen of Commercial Fertilizers Ltd and Ceylon Fertiliser Company Ltd.
The letter came in the wake of the Agriculture Ministry rejecting requests from the Chinese company to go for a third party test and made it clear that under no circumstances, would the contaminated shipment be allowed to discharge its cargo in any port in the country.
However, Minister Aluthgamage told the Sunday Times that the Government was willing to consider sharing losses if the current shipment was returned and a fresh shipment with fertiliser of accepted specifications was sent.
He said that if necessary, microbiologists from China and local microbiologists could sit together and test samples.
Early this week, Ministry officials met a delegation representing the Chinese fertiliser company to resolve the issue but the meeting ended inconclusively.
As of yesterday evening, the ship Hippo Sprint carrying 20,000MT of contaminated fertiliser was tracked near Kalutara, some 25 nautical miles from the Colombo port. Last week, the ship reappeared on maritime radars after briefly disappearing for days but remained in Sri Lankan waters.
Commercial Fertilizers Ltd Chairman Methsiri Wijegunawardana confirmed the receipt of the letter but declined to comment on the content since the matter was under judicial scrutiny. “There is a judicial process underway on this matter. Whatever the matter the party wants to negotiate, can do so through court process,”
The Colombo Commercial High Court is scheduled to hear the case on Friday.