Two state-owned Commercial Fertilizer Company and Ceylon Fertilizer Company will be merged under name of State Fertilizer from today

Until now, the two state-owned Commercial Fertilizer and Ceylon Fertilizer companies have taken steps to merge into a state-owned company under the name of State Fertilizer from today (12).

The government has been able to save a lot of money that had been spent in the past by merging the two companies, which previously had two chairmen, two boards of directors and two staff.

Yesterday (11) a ceremony was held at Water’s Edge Hotel to merge the two government-owned fertilizer companies and introduce the new name under the patronage of Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera. State Ministers Mr. D. B. Herath, Mr. Kader Mastan, Mr. Mohan Priyadarshana Silva, Ministry Secretary Mr. Janaka Dharmakeerthi and State Fertilizer Company Chairman Dr. Jagath Perera were also present.

Currently, there are a large number of institutions dealing with the same subject under the same ministry in our country. Because of this, the government has had to spend a lot of money on such institutions. Taking this situation into consideration, the Honorable President Ranil Wickramasinghe had instructed the Cabinet to start a process of merging institutions belonging to the same scope.

As this arrangement is very appropriate for public expenditure management, the first two institutions to be merged are the Commercial Fertilizer Company and Lanka Fertilizer Company.

Accordingly, from today (12) these two fertilizer companies owned by the government will be known as State Fertilizer.

The Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industry, Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, who participated in this event-

The two government-owned fertilizer companies were merged into one entity today. Out of 400 former employees of these two companies, 273 retired voluntarily. We gave them the highest compensation ever given to government employees. They received a huge amount of compensation ranging from Rs.09 lakhs to Rs.8.9 million depending on the length of service and position.

His Excellency the President Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe strengthened the fertilizer program. Due to the 2021 fertilizer crisis, the farmers took to the streets and protested. But because we have taken steps to provide chemical fertilizers again, we have now become a self-sufficient country in rice.

If it was not for the steps taken by Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe to solve the fertilizer crisis, the price of a kilo of rice in this country would have increased by more than 500 rupees. But from the year 2023, the people of our country will consume rice grown in our own country. In the years 2023 and 2024, we did not import a single grain of rice from abroad.

Dr. Jagath Perera, Chairman of State Fertilizer Company, who expressed his opinion here-

We are currently producing 30 types of mixed fertilizers for different crops. Special fertilizers are produced for tea, cinnamon, rubber and coconut. We have taken steps to reduce the prices of all these fertilizers to a greater extent than the prevailing prices in the market.

In particular, the Minister of Agriculture advised us to take steps to provide fertilizers to the farmers at as low a price as possible. Accordingly, from next Monday (15), we have taken steps to reduce the price of each metric ton of fertilizer produced by the State Fertilizer Company by 5000 rupees.

This step was taken according to our new business plan. We have come up with a new business plan for the new company. The chairman also said.

Here, Minister Mahinda Amaraweera inaugurated the State Fertilizer Company.

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