March 10, 2023

The former president of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, continuing on the pre-election mandate, implemented several steps to move towards organic fertilizer. However, this move was not properly phased out and heavily backfired and was one of the reasons for the start of the protests against the Rajapaksa regime.

Under the fertilizer policy, the Rajapaksa government decided to import a massive quantity of organic fertilizer and finally settled the deal with a Chinese firm called Qingdao Seawin Biotech. However, the transaction did not conclude as preliminary tests on samples in Sri Lanka confirmed that the Qingdao fertilizer contained certain harmful micro-organisms that can cause crop failure. Ultimately, this fertilizer ship had to be turned back, causing a massive loss to Sri Lanka, and later escalated even towards diplomatic tension between SL & China.

In the last few days, many FB posts were circulated on social media, which claimed that the CEO of the local agent of Qingdao Seawin Biotech, the infamous Chinese Organic fertilizer company, was, in fact, a candidate contesting for the upcoming local government election under the National People?s Power (NPP) party.