The Ministry of Agriculture has decided to establish a mandarin orange cultivation zone in the districts of Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Badulla.

Although oranges are already cultivated in these areas, there is a high demand among locals for imported mandarins which leads to the loss of significantly high cost.

With tests proving to be successful, it has now been decided to take measures to provide funding to locally cultivate mandarins.

Minister of Agriculture – Mahinda Amaraweera has instructed ministry officials to take measures to establish mandarin cultivations within this year itself.

Following the recommendations of the Cabinet Appointed Special Committee, an agreement was signed between the Government of Sri Lanka & RM Parks Inc., in collaboration with Shell for a long-term contract for the importation, storage, distribution, & sale of petroleum products in Sri Lanka, the President’s Media Division states.

The contract agreement has been signed a short while ago at the Presidential Secretariat, the PMD adds.

SriLankan Airlines is expecting passenger traffic to surpass pre-pandemic levels by year-end during its peak travel period, thanks to a boom in tourism.

In an interview with Channel News Asia (CNA), Nuttall said that he expected a ‘stronger outlook’ for next year, with matters gradually returning to normalcy in terms of the country’s economy and its tourist arrivals.

“Assuming that the world stays the same for the year ahead, which we expect, and the Sri Lankan economy is rebounding, tourism is coming back, we’re forecasting perhaps a 50 million profit next year”, he said in this regard.