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Courtesy Hiru News

Chinese Ambassador says Sri Lanka has agreed to retest the rejected Chinese Organic Fertiliser via a third party.

The ship in question – the Hippo Spirit – departed from China in September carrying 20,000 tonnes of much-needed organic fertiliser to Colombo.

The order was placed after the Sri Lankan government stopped all chemical fertiliser imports in May to convert the country into the world’s first completely organic farming nation.

It’s the first consignment of the plans to purchase 99,000 tonnes of organic fertiliser from Qingdao Seawin Bio-tech group.

The issue is with the quality of the fertiliser – which scientists say, instead of helping, could prove harmful to crops.

They insist that since the cargo has implications for the bio-security of the country, it cannot be accepted.

The decision has triggered an angry rebuttal from Qingdao Seawin. It has accused the Sri Lankan media of using terms like “toxic, garbage, pollution” and other derogatory words to “slander the image of the Chinese enterprises and the Chinese government”.

“The unscientific detection method and conclusion of National Plant Quarantine Service (NPQ) in Sri Lanka obviously do not comply with international animal and plant quarantine convention,” the company thundered in a statement.

As the controversy escalated, a court ordered the state-owned People’s Bank to stop payment of $9m for the cargo already awaiting entry.

The Chinese embassy in Colombo responded by blacklisting the bank for not honouring the payment to the company.

The Qingdao Seawin has also demanded eight million dollars’ compensation from the Sri Lankan National Plant Quarantine Service for the loss of reputation it has suffered following the controversy.

And as all this unfolds onshore, the ship has not left Sri Lanka’s waters.

When Sri Lankan port authorities denied permission for it to unload its cargo in late October, Hippo Spirit moved away from the Colombo harbour and reportedly sailed to waters off the coast of Hambantota port on its southern coast.

Following recent meetings with Chinese embassy officials, it was reported that the two parties agreed to re-test a fresh sample through a mutually agreed third-party laboratory.

If the cargo is returned to China, that would be a big loss of face for Qingdao Seawin and the Chinese government. The company says it exports organic fertiliser to more than 50 countries, including Australia and the US.

While the officials from the two countries spar over the fertiliser, tens of thousands of Sri Lankan farmers are looking at a bleak paddy farming season without the much-needed agricultural input.