Tea industry needs to be diversified

Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

The Sri Lankan tea industry is the country’s largest and the best resource in terms of earning foreign exchange, added value and employment generation. Sri Lanka has a strong and vibrant industry and a prominent brand. It is necessary to promote the health properties of tea for sustainability, Chairman of the Tea Exporters’ Association Jayantha Keragala told the tenth AGM of the Association in Colombo.

“We must change our marketing perspective and develop and promote our own brands to retain our share in the global market. We need a concerted effort to generate brand marketing initiatives”, he said.

The year 2008 commenced and continued till July on a ‘high’ with prices and crop progressively registering record performances. Then came the downturn, coinciding with the global economic meltdown, which saw tea prices crash, reaching its lowest point in November. However, at present, the industry is recovering, he said.

The tea industry faced many challenges and the industrialists overcame them successfully. The industry needs to be diversified to meet the current requirements. Capital is a vital component and management is the key to success, he said.

“Steps need to be taken to address adulteration of teas to enhance the inherent characteristics of the infused teas or make the visual features of the dry leaf more acceptable. If this continues, it will damage the reputation of Ceylon tea. It is not always possible to identify such teas prior to blending and exporters’ brands are jeopardized by the inclusion of adulterated teas”, he said.

“The country has one of the oldest tea auction rooms in the world and the Colombo Tea Auction is internationally considered a model. Ours is the number three tea producing country. It is necessary to bring down the cost of production as Sri Lanka has the highest production cost among competitive countries”, he said.

“We need to change our marketing perspective and develop and promote our own brands as Ceylon Tea’s main competitors have intensified their international outreach and product enhancement with substantial investment.

“We can no longer flog the concept of being the main source of orthodox black tea in the world or having a unique speciality range of qualities and grades”, he said.

Our tea industry has undergone a transformation. The moral and ethical standards have declined due to the intensity of competition. This has resulted in the violation of the level playing field. Action is necessary to enable the industry to become the gentlemen’s trade, the state it was, he said.