Tea exports to grow 15% in 2008 - CTTA Chairman
Ravi Ladduwahetty
Colombo Tea Traders' Association (CTTA) Chairman Tyeab Akberally
yesterday predicted that Sri Lanka's tea exports would grow by a further
15 per cent for 2008 following the landmark billion dollar export mark
in 2007.
Sri Lanka's tea exports were expected to grow by 15 per cent in 2008
according to current projections based on the increased demand for Sri
Lanka's orthodox teas from Libya, Iran, Russia and the CIS States,
Akberally told Daily News Business.
Akberally who is also a Director of his premium family tea exporting
company Akbar Brothers Ltd which accounts for 14 per cent of the
national tea exports, said that the demand for Sri Lanka's teas was
higher than stiff competitor Kenya despite the African country being the
world's largest tea producer due to the higher quality of Sri Lanka's
orthodox teas.
He said the real threat for Sri Lanka's teas was posed by Vietnam
which was manufacturing similar teas. However, they were 50 per cent
lower in quality and taste but were similar in appearance to Sri Lanka's
low grown teas.
He also explained that Kenya displacing Sri Lanka as the largest tea
exporter in the world, Sri Lanka's export earnings had increased in 2007
vis a vis Kenya's exports which had declined for the corresponding
period.
He said: "It is true that Kenya had displaced Sri Lanka as the third
largest tea producer in the world with a record 369 million kilos
against Sri Lanka's 304.6 million kilos for 2007, a fraction below the
310.8 million kilos for 2006.
It has also displaced Sri Lanka as the largest tea exporter in the
world with a volume of 345 million kilos as against Sri Lanka's 309.8
million kilos. The respective volumes in 2006 were 313 million kilos and
327 million kilos.
However, in export earnings Kenya had recorded US $ 639 million a
decline from the previous year's 652 million while Sri Lanka achieved
US$ 1.02 billion for 2007 over the US$ 836 million in 2006."
The CTTA Chairman also commended the performance of the tea sector,
which he said, should be viewed with great admiration in the wake of the
challenging circumstances it operated on.
"The crippling work stoppages by the plantation trade unions in early
2007 coinciding with the severe drought impaired production which
extended to a number of months," he said.
The resilience of the sector was manifest in the final crop figures
for the year which declined by a mere 2 per cent to 304.6 million kilos
in contrast to 310.6 million kilos for 2006, he said. |