Was Sri Lanka sent an old stock of organic fertiliser?
View(s):The Qingdao Seawin Biotech Fertilizer company is believed to have given Sri Lanka samples from a previously manufactured consignment of organic fertiliser, sources at Sri Lanka’s state fertiliser company said.
Sources at the Ceylon Fertilizer Company (CFC) said that with the opening of the Letter of Credit (LC) on September 17 the Qingdao company according to the terms of the contract should then commence manufacture and ensure that an independent laboratory obtains a test sample and then package it before sending it to the country after receiving the import permit to do so.
“The whole process would have taken about a month and we have not told them to short cut the process,” a source pointed out.
Officials are now questioning as to how the company can manufacture this fertiliser, according to the required specifications as per the tender, so soon to set sail on September 23 if it had not already been manufactured.
With 75 percent of the payment required to be paid at the point of loading, authorities stopped this transaction from materialising by filing a case in the Commercial High Court when they realised the fertiliser was tainted with microorganisms as identified and reported by the National Plant Quarantine Services (NPQS). The balance 25 percent was to be paid on arrival.
In this respect the CFC had written to the said fertiliser company on October 30 that they should not send the stock of fertilizer.
Sources noted that they had learnt the fertiliser now needs to be delivered else the claims made by the vessel owners from the exporters “will cost them more money than the actual value of the cargo – and that is why they are trying to use diplomatic channels and trying to exert pressure to ensure Sri Lanka accepts it – otherwise it will be given to another country and most likely it would be sold”. It was noted that if this consignment is not unloaded they would have to discharge it somewhere.
The company is contracted to deliver the organic fertiliser in five shipments to Sri Lanka with the last one due on January 20, it was noted.
Sri Lanka had awarded Qingdao Seawin Biotech company the contract to supply 96,000 MT of sterilised solid organic fertiliser costing US$42.8 million.