Sri Lanka negotiating with Qingdao to settle fertilizer issue

COLOMBO (News 1st); Talks are being held with China's Qingdao Seawin Biotech company to resolve the issues relating to the organic fertilizer deal that was scrapped off recently, says the Agriculture secretary M.N. Ranasinghe.

He noted that an agreement has not been reached with the company as of yet.

The cabinet has already granted approval to pay 6.7 million US dollars to the Chinese company.

Last week, the company said they must go for arbitration and claim compensation from Sri Lanka as its reputation was affected.

The company's deputy general manager Anna Song had said that the company's reputation was affected, which had caused huge losses as Sri Lankan authorities had deliberately set up obstacles.

The ship 'Hippo Spirit' that carried a shipment of rejected organic fertilizer to Sri Lanka has reached the Qingdao Port.

Although it has been more than a week since the Hippo Spirit ship had returned to China, maritime data indicate that the consignment has not been unloaded yet.