Sri Lanka has bought 30,000 tonnes of white raw rice from Pakistan and 20,000 tonnes of parboiled rice from India for delivery in November and December, an official at the Co-operative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) said on Tuesday. He said the tender of 30,000 tonnes of white raw rice was awarded to five Pakistani firms for prices ranging from $182.44 and $200, cost-and-freight (C&F) Colombo basis. The official earlier said the white raw rice was bought from Indian firms. The rice will be delivered in Colombo before November 10,25 and December 10 to arrive in three parcels of 10,000 tonnes each, the official said. The tender for 20,000 tonnes of parboiled rice was also broken into lots of 10,000 tonnes each and awarded to India's LTC Ltd and Priyanka Overseas Ltd at $238.35 and $239.45 C&F Colombo, respectively.

Cambodia garment exports up 200%

Cambodian garment exports grew almost 200 per cent during the first nine months of this year compared with the same period in 1998, commerce officials said Tuesday. Garment exports were worth $380.8 million up to September this year, compared with $127.3 million for the same period last year, according to commerce ministry statistics. Cambodian garment export volumes rose 35 per cent to 9.1 million dozen bundles compared with 6.7 million dozen in the same period last year. Cambodia exports textiles in bundles of a dozen pieces. Secretary of State for Commerce Sok Siphana told Reuters the sharp increase in garment exports was due to a rise in foreign investors in the country. "It has increased because the new arrivals bring new businesses," said Sok Siphana. "It's not the same factories doubling their volume.

Coonoor tea auction

A fairly good demand prevailed in the tea auction at Coonoor, which witnessed transaction of 23,243,59.1 kgs of tea last week. Prices of orthodox brokens remained steady, while fannings grades were easier, industry sources said. Among the CTC teas offered, bolder CTC brokens declined Rs two to Rs three, while other brokens were about easier by Re One. Smaller brokens and fannings were fully firm to dearer. Among the dusts, the primary orthodox dust was irregular. Other dusts declined to Re one to Rs two. All CTC dusts were Rs.two to Rs three lower, the sources said.

Statoil pulls out of China project

Norway's Statoil said on Tuesday it had pulled out of an oil project in the Hainan block in the Bay of Bohai off Northeastern China because it did not satisfy the company's commercial requirements. Statoil said, however, that it would maintain an office in Beijing and was open to other opportunities in China. Statoil was offered operatorship and a 49 per cent stake in the block, which forms part of a province containing several of China's producing fields. "After a careful technical and commercial assessment, we've decided to turn down an offer to continue," said vice president of international exploration and production Baard Johansen. Statoil said it would remain as operator of the Lufeng fieldin the South China Sea, which is expected to produce until 2001. Earlier this month, Statoil said it had put oil and gas exploration activities in Russia on ice because of the regulatory framework there. Statoil spokesman Kristofer Hetland said the company was considering several new projects in different locations."But they have to satisfy our rate of return," he said, declining to give any figure for the company's return target.

Bangladesh garment exports rise

Bangladesh earned $4.1 billion by exporting readymade garments in fiscal 1998-99 (July-June), a 6.8 per cent rise over the previous year, garment exporters said on Tuesday. "The export earnings are poised to increase by six per cent in 1999-2000,"president of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association Anisur Rahman Sinha told reporters in Dhaka. Garments account for nearly 80 per cent of Bangladesh's annual export earnings, commerce ministry officials said. Sinha said the export growth in recent years was lower than the BGMEA had expected because of political unrest and floods that shut down factories for months and hampered exports. "The export growth should have been between 15 to 25%."