The small island nation of Sri Lanka is under tremendous pressure from China after Colombo rejected an order of organic fertilizer from a Chinese company after it was discovered it was contaminated.
Sri Lanka had decided to import 99,000 metric tonnes of organic fertilizer at a cost of 63 million US dollars from the Chinese company, but after an analysis, the consignment was rejected as it was found to be “tainted” which infuriated China.
This decision was based on scientific research after the Policy Research Group said in two samples, the fertilizer supplied by China did not meet the Sri Lanka Standard Institutions. Also, National Plant Quarantine Service and Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Board found micro-organisms, pathogens, and diseases harmful to the soil, plants, and humans in the fertilizer supplied by China.
Also, there was a lot of pressure from Sri Lankan scientists who warned that China’s organic fertilizer would be an agricultural disaster as the samples were found to be infected with Erwinia, a notorious plant pathogen that causes severe post-harvest losses in crops, the think tank said.
After the order was canceled, China put pressure on Sri Lankan leadership but that did not work and that led to China’s punitive blacklisting of state-owned People’s Bank of Sri Lanka, citing a “vicious” Letter of Credit “default”. China said that the Sri Lankan bank’s decision caused huge losses, but the bank clarified that it was only following court orders prohibiting it from making payments.
The Chinese government even went to the extent that it is not willing to accept that Sri Lanka has disallowed a consignment of organic fertilizer exported by a Chinese company.
It must be noted that India recently air-lifted nearly 110 tonnes of organic fertilizer to Sri Lanka after the Rajapaksa government asked for help.
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