Wang Yi effect? Sri Lanka to resume purchase from Chinese firm that shipped ‘contaminated’ fertiliser

Colombo, Jan 14 (FN Agency) Less than a week after Sri Lanka paid US$ 6.9 million in damages to a Chinese fertiliser company to placate an upset Beijing ahead of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit, Colombo has decided to resume import of fertiliser from the same company. Sri Lanka paid the Chinese company Qingdao Seawin Biotech $6.9 million on January 8, against the shipment of 20,000 tonnes of rejected fertiliser, amid a forex crisis gripping the nation. Now Sri Lanka-based Colombo Commercial Fertilizer Company (CCFC) Ltd. , one of the two companies that ordered organic fertilizer from Qingdao Seawin Biotech, has said it will again purchase organic fertilizer from the Chinese company. Colombo had rejected the shipment of fertiliser last November after tests showed the shipment was “contaminated” with harmful bacteria. The Chinese company rejected the findings, and got its shipment tested in a third country, which apparently showed the fertiliser was not contaminated.

The dispute ended with Colombo paying the $6.9 million demanded by the Chinese firm. “Earlier we had agreements for 90,000 metric tons and first we were to get 20,000 metric tons of fertilizer. We will have to come to an agreement soon about the rest, after discussion among the government departments and fertilizer organizations,” Methsiri Wijegunawardhana, President of Colombo Commercial Fertilizer Company told reporters. “The first shipment will be here by the end of February or early March. The discussions about that will take place soon, and the Ministry will make an official statement about that,” he said, economynext.com reported. Wijegunawardhana assured that they will not get the rejected fertilizer but a fresh shipment. “Just because one lot was rejected does not mean it will all be so and we are giving priority for lab testing.” Sri Lanka is using independent labs to test the standard of the fertilizer as well as SGS labs in Switzerland for the first time. The Sri Lanka Standards Institute is preparing new standards for special types of fertilizer.

Agriculture minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage said the ministry had requested the SLSI to prepare new standards for liquid biofertilizer and solid fertilizers, newsfirst reported. He noted that the previous standards did not allow the importation of fertilizer containing bacteria. The minister said that authorities would not allow fertilizer containing harmful bacteria into the country. In October 2021, Ceylon Fertilizer Company Limited got a court order to block payment to Qingdao Seawin Biotech after a shipment was found to be contaminated on a post-shipment examination. This resulted in China blacklisting a state-bank. However, the matter was resolved when Sri Lanka paid the Chinese company 6.9 million dollars on Friday (January 8) for the rejected shipment – coinciding with Chinese FM Wang Yi’s two-day visit. This week China removed the Sri Lankan state bank from its blacklist. Wijegunawardhana said the reason behind the decision to go with the same Chinese company was because Chinese fertilizer has high quality Nitrogen and NPK in the optimum amounts, “That’s why the Department (of Agriculture) and the relevant organizations have come to that decision.” Colombo Commercial Fertilizer is a government fertilizer distributor which has so far imported Nano Nitrogen and organic fertilizer from China.