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Tea Assn. of Sri Lanka to be launched on Feb. 27

by Channa Kasturisinghe

The Tea Association of Sri Lanka formed by six major stakeholders in the tea industry will be launched on February 27, at a time when the country's tea sector is in crisis due to war threats in the Middle East.

The Association representing tea producers, traders, exporters, smallholders, private factory owners and brokers would be instrumental in making Ceylon tea a global market force, Plantation Industries Minister Lakshman Kiriella told the media yesterday.

"The formation of the association is timely and its effectiveness will be tested in this difficult period," the Minister said.

He said the Association would be initially funded by the ongoing Asian Development Bank (ADB) supported Plantation Reform Project (PRP) and the proposed Plantation Development Project.

The Association's Chairman Rohan Fernando said the initial tasks of the TASL would be to promote Ceylon Tea globally, develop market intelligence, and leverage quality through a quality certification program with the establishment of certification infrastructure.

"The TASL would also be involved in strategy and policy development and be a catalist for product development and research. Funding plans for the first five years of the TASL's operations envisage an investment of about Rs. 200 million, largely from donor funds but with an increasing contribution from the Tea Cess and fee-based activities in the longer term," Fernando said.

TASL would facilitate strategic alliances and collaborate with supporting institutions such as the Tea Research Institute (TRI), the Sri Lanka Tea Board and the Tea Smallholding Development Authority to ensure alignment with industry needs. The TASL also plans to be the conduit for the establishment of a market intelligence and promotion centre, for e-trading, to establish laisons with non-governmental organisations to raise awareness on international codes of conduct and for certification standards relating to social, welfare and environmental conditions, he said. 

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