Tea industry laments lack of support from authorities

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

Tea is one of Sri Lanka’s most lucrative exports that has vast scope and opportunity for growth in the international market. Authorities must provide support and co-operation to the tea exporters to develop the industry to its optimum potential, Chairman Tea Exporters Association Jayantha Keragala said.

He said that Sri Lanka exceeded the US$ 1.2 billion mark in 2007 due to the tireless marketing effort of the exporters, transforming the industry from the traditional bulk tea export to marketing sophisticated value added branded teas in the international market covering 145 countries in the world.

He said tea cannot be exported as a commodity any more and needs a huge investment for infrastructure, equipment, technology and research as the entire process of marketing branded teas to the international market starts from a study of the consumer perceptions. He added that the effort of the tea exporters were focused on discern, design and delivery and this strategy has given them extremely positive results in the international market.

However he regretted that some authorities have not placed confidence in the industry. The Chairman Chamber of Exporters Rohan Fernando said the transformation of the tea industry requires over US$ 600 million and a strong commitment by the tea exporters.

The tea processing and packaging plants conform to the highest international specifications achieving standards such as HACCP, 5S, 6 Sigma and ISO standards which assure the end customers of a high quality product.

Chairman, Mlesna Tea, Anslem B. Perera said the tea industry is a golden industry which has the widest range of taste comes under 34 different grades and the goal of the exporters is to achieve 100 per cent export of finished product.