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If the Bay of Bengal’s low depression brewed the storm that broke over Lanka to engulf its people in untold misery this week, then a diplomatic tempest developing off the South China Sea threatens to soon stand poised over Lankan skies to unleash its torrents of fury upon a sovereign nation and drown the proffered bowl of alms in its deluge.

Already foul winds have started to blow to signal its advent which the Government of Lanka has brushed aside as mere trade winds and not the belligerent hurricane force winds of state that sometimes besiege unbending nations. But beneath the seeming complacency, there lies a swirling disquiet at the unforeseen appearance of these gathering clouds that threaten to steal the sunshine and rain on the goodwill existing between China and Lanka.

At its epicentre rests a disputed consignment of fertiliser imported by the Lankan Government from a Chinese company, namely, the Shandong based Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group. The order was placed mid-August and the consignment was shipped from China on September 23.

Since then the jinxed fertiliser has been bogged down in a quagmire of diplomatic exchanges, tirades and legal wrangles, with the Chinese Government blacklisting Lanka’s People’s Bank worldwide for dishonouring its Letter of Credit,  and the Chinese company claiming 8 million dollars as damages for defamation from the Deputy Director of the Government’s plant and soil protection agency, the Sri Lanka Plant Quarantine Service, for issuing a report stating the fertiliser was contaminated with Erwinia.

And whilst turmoil howls on land, a ship carrying the dynamite cargo lies anchored 12 nautical miles off the Kalutara coast, denied entry to Lankan ports. Having ploughed Lanka’s territorial waters, hugging the southern coastline for the past few weeks, it hangs around aimless, like a guest who had outstayed his welcome and refuses to leave even after he has been shown the door.

Mystery surrounds how a simple order for fertiliser ended up being the dung drop in China’s and Sri Lanka’s shared glass of milk, how it was allowed to become a souring agent to spoil an otherwise perfect toast.

On September 8, the National Plant Quarantine Service (NPQS) submitted its first report on the Chinese fertiliser consignment and ruled that the fertiliser was unfit for use in Lanka due to the presence of Erwinia.

The report stated that a sample of Solid Organic fertiliser was found to be highly contaminated with gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and that the “preliminary studies have revealed that bacteria to be Bacillus spp. and Erwinia spp. which can be pathogenic to plants.”

The onset of Erwinia has been identified as causing a sudden rotting of plant roots and emitting a foul smell and the drooping of leaves and will ultimately be fatal to the plant.

Following the preliminary report, Devika de Costa, Professor of Plant Protection attached to the University of Peradeniya told the media: “Erwinia is identified as a severe plant pathogen that can have major effect on agriculture. It also affects root crops that are economically important and are grown in large amounts. Effect of this pathogen could be found even during the post-harvest.”

On September 28, the Director-General of Agriculture Dr. Ajantha de Silva confirmed that harmful bacteria was detected in a fresh second sample of the Chinese organic fertiliser and the following day, Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage announced the suspension of organic fertiliser imports from China.

Chagrined by the reports, the Chinese Embassy issued a statement on October 9, decrying the local lab’s findings. After hailing Seawin Biotech’s background as a company with Rs. 4 billion value founded in 2000 with an international customer base of more than 50 countries and regions in the world, including Europe and the United States, it poured scorn on Lanka’s Plant Quarantine Service as having no scientific basis for rejecting the consignment.

The Chinese Embassy claimed: “In the process of enforcing the contract, however, the Sri Lanka National Plant Quarantine Services (NPQS) claimed that the sample received contained harmful bacteria including Erwinia, after only THREE (3) days of test and analysis, which led to the above-mentioned news reports. It is noted that, according to the International Plant Protection Convention, it will take at least SIX (6) days to detect Erwinia. The hasty conclusion made by NPQS lacks scientific basis. As such, the decision made by the authorities to reject Seawin’s organic fertiliser based on the NPQS report is not only questionable but also causing great financial loss to the company.”

The statement concluded with a further dig at Lanka’s NPQS by an appeal to respect science and fact. It said that it “hopes that the related parties on the Sri Lankan side and the Chinese company could coordinate on the principles of respecting science and facts and the spirit of contract with the view to resolving this issue promptly, and address differences through dialogue in good faith for the mutual benefits of the China-Sri Lanka cooperation”.

October’s Halloween week was indeed fraught with its own freaky versions of trick or treat. On 26th Tuesday, Co-Cabinet Spokesman Minister Dr. Ramesh Pathirana emphasised that the Government is not ready to accept substandard Chinese organic fertiliser. On 27th  Wednesday, Seawin Biotech released its version of events. It made, among others, two significant points.

Point One: “On September 27, the seller received an oral notice from the buyer and was informed that Sri Lanka Plant Quarantine Centre (NPQ) issued a conclusion of ‘suspecting that the samples contain Erwinia’, but did not provide the test report, test method and standards. According to ISPM27 rule in IPPC (International Plant Protection Convention), it takes more than six days to identify Erwinia, but NPQ only took three days to draw a ‘suspicious’ conclusion.”

Point Two: “After the supplier raised doubts, NPQ Sri Lanka updated the report on October 11 and seven days were used to test, but it still did not indicate the test standards and methods. Testing temperature of Erwinia shown in the report is 37 degrees Celsius and carrot slices at 37 degrees Celsius are used for pathogenicity test. According to the relevant agreement of IPPC, the testing temperature of Erwinia is 25 degrees Celsius and healthy plants should be used for pathogenicity test. At least 13-14 days should be used to confirm Erwinia through pathogenicity.”

Point One again made reference to a minimum of six days being necessary as per IPPC rules to show the presence of Erwinia as the Chinese Embassy statement had claimed in its October 9 statement. Point two admitted that Lanka’s NPQS had now held a second test for seven days but had, nevertheless, come to the same conclusion.

Point Two now referred to a temperature standard of 25 degrees Celsius instead of the 37 degree Celsius which the local lab had used but the statement did not specify whether it too was a requirement under IPPC rules.

But this did not wash with Agriculture Minister Aluthgamage who, having earlier said there was no Erwinia in the samples, had now, interestingly enough, turned full convert. On the 27th, he declared that the ship carrying rejected Chinese fertiliser will not be accepted and samples from the ship will not be retested. Neither will payment be made for the shipment. He even went to the extent of issuing an order to deny entry to the ship carrying the consignment from entering Sri Lankan ports.

Suddenly, Lanka appeared to have found some Dutch courage to put on a bold front when on October 28, Agriculture Minister Aluthgamage said that Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa had informed the Chinese Ambassador that the ship carrying rejected Chinese fertiliser would not be accepted. He said this matter was communicated to the Chinese diplomat when he called on the Prime Minister at Temple Trees the previous day.

However, on the following day, Lanka seemed to have straightened out, for the Daily Mirror reported quoting informed sources that the Prime Minister had rapped Aluthgamage over the statement he had made regarding the Prime Minister’s meeting with the Chinese Ambassador, since Aluthgamage had not been present at the meeting.

Instead, the report said, the Prime Minister had agreed to the Chinese request to have a third party test on the controversial cargo and give a report.

But there was worse to come. Following a court order the Government’s Ceylon Fertiliser Company had obtained preventing the People’s Bank from making any payment to Seawin under the Letter of Credit, China blew its top and blacklisted the People’s Bank for failing to make the payment.

ERWINIA BLIGHT: State institutions mount sturdy defence to save Lanka’s soil and plants from harmful organisms

The Chinese Embassy said, “All Chinese enterprises are reminded to tighten risk control and avoid accepting L/C issued by the People’s Bank of Sri Lanka in international trade with Sri Lanka.”

It’s a pity that Chinese officials ignored the effects of a Lankan court order that legally prevented the People’s Bank from honouring its commitment. The enjoining order has now been extended by court until November 19.

The Chinese double-down intensified further when on November 5, China’s Seawin Biotech sent a letter of demand claiming 8 million dollars from National Plant Quarantine’s Additional Director Dr. W.A.R.T.  Wickramarachchi for having signed test reports certifying the Seawin samples as Erwinia contaminated. The Chinese company claims it has suffered damage due to loss of reputation and goodwill as well as existing and potential business and has threatened legal action.

Doesn’t that smack of intimidation? Scaring the pants off a public official by demanding 1.6 billion bucks to his ruin for signing a report in the normal course of his duties when his supreme employer has far bigger pockets to satisfy any purported claim Seawin may have?

In a bid to play down the mounting crisis, Foreign Minister G. L. Peiris diplomatically referred to it as a trade dispute and not one between states, even though China has shown no inhibition at going with all guns ablaze at Lankan Government institutions, even blacklisting worldwide one of Lanka’s premier State banks, not to forget the diplomatic pressure undoubtedly exerted at the top levels.

But if China has been stubborn in its pursuit to obtain clearance of the condemned Chinese cargo, so has Lanka’s State institutions been steadfast in their refusal.

Despite the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa agreeing to the Chinese Ambassador’s request for a third party to test the samples and give its own verdict, the NPQS has, to its credit, stuck to its guns.

On Monday, it made its position clear. The NPQS said that anyone is free to conduct any amount of third party tests but whatever the verdicts maybe, no fertiliser shipment can enter Lanka without a clearance certificate from the NPQS. It said it has no authority to clear any consignment of organic fertiliser based on the test results of a third party, as per the country’s Plant Quarantine Act.

Furthermore, if the NPQS has not granted a valid import permit for any consignment of goods coming under the said Act, the consignment will be held as an unauthorised importation and will have to be re-shipped to sender at the sender’s cost.

Section 8 of the Act specifies the composition of the Appeal Panel. It states: ‘The Appeals Panel shall consist of three members appointed from a panel of fifteen persons consisting of scientists who are qualified in the fields of Entomology, Plant Pathology, Microbiology, Mycology, Virology or Nematology who shall be appointed by the Agriculture Ministry Secretary.

With such a panel of experts from varied fields on board, it may well be asked by any Lankan, who best to protect Lanka’s plants and soil than an expert body of Sri Lankan sentinels loyally standing guard?

On Thursday, the Chinese company Seawin Biotech jumped with glee to announce that a third party, namely, Schutter Global Inspection and Survey Company, has cleared its samples of any harmful bacteria contrary to findings by Sri Lanka’s Plant Quarantine service. It stated: Schutter’s test report says that no harmful characteristics — Coliform bacteria, Salmonella and ascarid-eggs were found in samples provided by the company.

The choice of Schutter as an independent third party is surprising because Seawin Biotech, in its statement of October 27 said it “strongly requests both parties to entrust the world’s most authoritative and top third-party testing organisation the Swiss SGS Group to re-sampling as soon as possible to test whether the samples are contaminated with Erwinia.” Wonder why SGS — Société Générale de Surveillance — was given the thumbs down at the crucial moment and lesser known Schutter was handpicked instead? Could it be because, as Seawin says in the same statement, Schutter had already given clearance to the samples prior to September 23 shipment and history has a tendency to repeat itself?

True, the impending winds may not blow so hard so as to topple the cart to which both Lanka and China have loaded their cultivated mandarins and mangoes but it is clear that Storm Erwinia has led to frayed tempers with both China and Seawin Biotech getting edgy over a mouse roaring at an oriental dragon to prevent a bacteria ridden Chinese carbonic waste from contaminating its fields even as a Wuhan virus infected its inhabitants.