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By Ravi Ladduwahetty

The Draft Action Program of "The Future- Regaining Sri Lanka" has recommended that the Sri Lanka Tea Board, the Sri Lanka Export Development Board and other organisations dealing with tea will come under a common banner which will be called the Export Promotion Council, causing ripples in the local tea industry.

Recommendations for the tea industry also specify that the Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) should be restructured and that the SLTB's focus should be limited but be an efficient regulatory role. The proposed Tea Association of Sri Lanka will take on a degree of self regulation.

The recommendations for Sri Lanka's tea industry has been made by a Committee which has been appointed by the Ministry of Policy Development and Implementation chaired by the Chairman of MJF Exports Ltd Merryl J. Fernando, Standard Trading Co. Ltd Chairman Lalin Fernando, Forbes and Walker Chairman Chrisantha Perera and former Secretary to the Ministry of Plantation Industries R.S. Jayaratne.

The recommendations also specify that the Sri Lanka Tea Board's promotional role should move to the proposed Export Marketing Council and that the overseas offices of the Tea Board should be closed. According to the recommendations the vital foreign exchange that is used for the running of these offices could in the promotion of Sri Lanka teas. The recommendations also entail the appointment of skilled borrowed to be recruited for Sri Lanka's overseas missions.

When contacted for comments on the proposed strategies which have been recommended by the committee, Sri Lanka Tea Board Chairman Ronnie Weerakoon said that the proposed move could destabilise the entire tea industry in the light of tea being a very specialised product and specific commodity. Therefore, it has to be promoted by personnel who have years of experience in this important trade and that it could not be classified in conjunction with spices, textiles and bananas.

The amalgamation of tea with the others could dilute the focus on tea exports, he said.

He said that the Colombo auction being the largest auction in the world giving the country's tea the highest prices anywhere and that some of the richest exporters have been moulded by the Sri Lanka Tea Board and that the focus should not be diluted.

Commenting on the regulatory role of the industry, Weerakoon said that the main problems of the tea industry are thefts of teas from factories while being transported, illegal manufacturing and adulterated teas. He said that the control of these teas will have an effect on the quality of the teas.

Worldwide acceptance is of paramount importance and top priority needs stronger regulatory controls and not a limited role. Haphazard liberalisation and the constant deregulation has made the once powerful Tea Commissioners' Division a toothless tiger.

This is indeed sacrilegious in the light of Sri Lanka's key competitors- India, Kenya and Indonesia fortifying their Tea Boards.

Commenting on challenging a time tested method, he said that what was mandatory was an increase of the private sector representation on the Board of Directors of the Sri Lanka Tea Board and also to make the Tea Small Holdings Development Authority and the Tea Research Board more private sector driven and also with less Government controls.

These have been recommended to the Government some months ago taking into consideration the national interests, he said.

He cautioned that if the proposed measures are implemented, there would be convulsions in the tea industry.

Tea Exporters' Association Chairman Ajit Goonetilleke who is also a Director of the Sri Lanka Tea Board and the Tea Association of Sri Lanka said: "The Colombo tea auction is the best in the world. Sri Lanka's tea production has been increasing annually from 1998 and there is nothing to regain when you are right at the top."

Tea Small Holdings Development Authority Chairman M.L.M. Aboosally, himself a Project Minister of Plantation Industries said: "There is no need to transfer the system which has been hitherto working so well. We have sold every bit of the 305 million kilos of tea which has been grown and at Rs. 20 per kilo higher than any other global market. Changing the system is absurd," he said.

The small holders have accounted for 62 percent of the tea production of tea after owning only 46 percent of the land and their output is 2,300 kilos of tea per hectare while the output of the Regional Plantation Companies (RPC) is only 1,500 kilos per hectare, he said.

Some of the other recommendations include the formation of a Dollar tea auction of which the strategy is to where the full benefit of devaluation is passed on to the producers, brand marketing and the employment of professionals at market rates.

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