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Tea plantations should be made viable, profit-making ventures - Senior Planter

by S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen Kandy South group correspondent

"We must unite irrespective of party or political affiliations and make our tea plantations viable and turn them around to make them profit- making ventures. The planters and the workers should co-operate with each other and bring our tea plantations back to its pristine glory.

We could double our crops in ten tears with more effort, becoming a major tea producing country and giving a boost to our economy, said the most Senior Past President of the Ceylon Planters Society and former Management Consultant and Visiting Agent P.H.A.N. Dias.

He made these observations when he addressed the members of the Ceylon Planters Society - Matale Region at the Madulkelle Club which was chaired by the Branch Chairman of CPS Sarath Fernando.

Dias said that to get the best out of the planters, they must be remunerated well and should be provided with all facilities as in the past, for them to have job satisfaction. He lamented that he was stunned to see some of the estates in the Matale Region in a state of total neglect. On some of the estates, both the power supply and telephone services have been disconnected due to non payment of bills for a number of months.

The planters are living in their bungalows with the help of kerosene lamps and there is no electricity to pump the water to their water tanks. They cannot be contacted in an emergency as the telephones have been disconnected. Even if they have private mobile telephones, there is no electricity to re-charge the batteries to use them.

He also said that in that particular region there is no manufacture of teas in 11 factories and the green leaf is sold to private tea factories and spot cash obtained for the daily running of the estates. No funds had been lodged for the payment of the Employees Provident Fund and Employees Trust Fund to the workers for a period of nearly three years. No agricultural improvement to the estates could be carried out due to lack of funds. These excellent properties are now in a run-down state.

These plantations up to a few years back were managed by a private Plantation Management Company and had been handed back to the state after they incurred huge losses. From time-to-time Treasury gives a little money to meet part of the operational costs. Large sums will have to be spent on these estates to make them viable again.

Speaking on planting parlance he said the COP is going to be much higher than BOP (meaning the Cost of Production will be higher than Broken Orange Pekoe).

Dias said that all is not lost. We can still salvage the situation and put these plantations in order through hard work, honesty and dedication but without funds, this is certainly not possible. We must get together and save these plantations from going to ruin as they are the lifeblood of our economy.

He said that a few days back, he had the opportunity to visit some of the estates managed by the Sri Lanka State Plantations Corporation in the Matale region and that he was happy to see them being beautifully managed.

The roads were well maintained and the tea fields were well managed like some of the top tea estates in the Dimbula and Agarapatana regions. They look so nice and beautiful and they should be the pride of the SLSPC.

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