Sri Lanka has agreed to re-test the rejected organic fertilizer at a laboratory accepted by both Sri Lanka and China as suggested by the Chinese organic fertilizer manufacturing company, State Minister of Agriculture Shasheendra Rajapaksa today (26) said.
Rajapaksa said that Sri Lanka is not forced to conduct another tesing round.
“They only made a request. We made it clear that the shipment cannot reach Sri Lanka. They said we need to understand the quality of the fertilizer that is shipped by them to 16 other countries,” he added.
This decision was taken after China’s Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group Co., Ltd which shipped organic fertilizer to Sri Lanka ‘strongly recommended’ to test a fertilizer sample again with a third party to eliminate ‘misunderstanding.’
The company in a letter to Director General of Agriculture Prof. Ajantha de Silva on 22 October said that it will draw a new sample from the bulk cargo on board and send it to a third-party testing agent recognized by both parties to retest and confirm whether the product is contaminated by Erwinia spp according to scientific and reasonable testing methods.
The CTO of our company will also participate in the synchronous testing of samples in NPQ or other suitable laboratories in Sri Lanka to eliminate disputes, the company said.
Meanwhile, Rajapaksa, along with the Agriculture Minister Secretary and the DG of Agriculture met Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka reharding the matter as well.
