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Tea exports to grow 15% in 2008 - CTTA Chairman

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.

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