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by Anura Maitipe

The Sri Lankan tea industry which earned over Rs 53,133 million foreign exchange last year has found it difficult to reach the set target for the year due to the ongoing power cut and reduction of green leaves caused by the drought,Tea Small Holding Authority sources told the Daily News yesterday.

As a result of the drought during the last few months some tea factories have been compelled to stop routine work due to the lack of sufficient green leaves to run the factories.

Statistics have shown that the tea yield has sharply dropped due to the drought in Nuwara Eliya by 35 per cent, Badulla and Bandarawela by 60 per cent, Balangoda 40 per cent, Matara 35 per cent, Kandy 37 per cent, Ratnapura 45 per cent, Galle and Matara, 30 per cent, the sources said.

The ongoing power cut has an adverse impact on the tea industry. Most of the factories switched on to diesel generators on and this has resulted in an increase in the cost of production from Rs 101 to 114. Although the production cost has gone up that selling price still stands at Rs 162.46, the sources said.

Sri Lanka is the world's largest high quality tea producer but an increase in the cost of production would give Kenya a chance to dominate the tea market.In order to protect our market the cost of production should be brought down, they said.

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