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By Channa Kasturisinghe

The liberalisation and deregulation process of the Plantation Sector will not in any way jeopardise future career prospects of the employees in the Tea Board, Plantation Industries Minister Lakshman Kiriella said. He said that there were misunderstandings and uncertainties among Tea Board staff regarding restructuring of the institutions under the Ministry.

"The regulatory functions will certainly be strengthened under the revamping process. The question of delegating the role of promotion is being incorrectly quoted. My personal view as well as the view of the experts in the tea industry is that brand promotion should be handed over to the Tea Association of Sri Lanka (TASL) to nurture several global brands similar to Dilmah while the Tea Promotion Bureau should continue its role for generic and uni-national promotion," Minister Kiriella said.

He said that the Sri Lanka Tea Board had done a splendid job with a restricted promotion budget. "The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is willing to grant 15 million US dollars for joint brand marketing among plantation companies and exporters.

Let the TASL handle that function but the Tea Promotion Division has the network to continue generic promotion and lion logo promotion. We must not forget the fact that Dilmah was funded for the last 20 years by the Tea Board amounting to Rs. 65 million.

It is the Tea Board which provided Dilmah with the much needed foundation to build a castle today. The Tea Board also undertook during the past two-and-a-half decades to support the smallholder sector and the manufacturers. Schemes such as Randalu and 5S have upgraded our factories enormously," Minister Kiriella said.

"I fully accept the fact that the Board is performing an important role in promoting tea overseas, but we should not forget the promotion of Ceylon Tea in the domestic market. In this context I suggest that the Tea Board undertakes regular tea promotions and liquid tea services at popular rugger and cricket venues as well as other major functions where the masses congregate. Today, the industry has reached an important milestone where the public sector and the private sector will have to join hands and as a team take the stakeholders to a new height," Minster Kiriella said.

He said that with the dawn of the 21st century the Plantation Sector opened a new chapter. "Rubber prices which were dwindling in the past decade have increased remarkably. Coconut prices have also risen and the producers are today receiving remunerative incomes.

In the tea sector, production has reached an all-time high and the total revenue exceeded Rs. 60 billion.

Although the tea prices are undergoing a downward pressure due to the uncertain situation in the Gulf, most experts believe that it is only a temporary phenomena and the industry will sustain and strengthen its position even further," Minster Kiriella said.

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