Tea industry needs modernization

The tea industry needs modernization as we have to be competitive in the international markets and in fact the entire plantation industry should be modernized for rapid development to take place, Plantation Industries Minister D.M.Jayaratna said.

The Minister made this observation when he opened a branch of the Tea Research Institute at Deniyaya in the Matara District.

He said the Government was taking all steps to continue the goodwill earned for our teas as the world’s best tea and we have been able to earn the highest income for all time from tea exports in the current year.

The establishment of a branch of the TRI in the South was another step taken under the Mahinda Chintana policy program of President Mahinda Rajapaksa that would help a large percentage of tea small-holders in the South and it was the objective of the Government to bring up the plantation industries to a very high standard to earn a major share of the Nation’s export income.

It is my belief that those in the plantations sector would be able to achieve good results after the modernization of tea and other plantations. Tea small-holders contribute a 74 percent share of the total tea production and during the last year the income from tea exports alone was Rs. 1.27 billion.

We are hopeful that the tea industry would earn a higher import income in the future, he noted. The cost of the new TRI building and equipment is Rs. 23 million and it would serve over 63,000 tea small-holders of the Matara and Hambantota Districts, the Minister also said.

(L.de S.)