British High Commissioner visits Kandy Ceylon Tea Museum

The British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Dr. Peter Hayes visited the Ceylon Tea Museum in Kandy last week.

The Tea Museum is housed in Hantane tea factory which ceased to manufacture tea nearly two decades ago. Built in 1925, the spacious four storied Hantana tea factory today stands as a proud monument to the success story of Sri Lankan tea industry.

The Ceylon Tea Museum is a project jointly operated by Sri Lanka Tea Board and tea industry stakeholders with the objective of exhibiting memorabilia machinery, documents, pictures and objects of historical value to the Sri Lankan tea industry and to exploit the tourism potential of the industry.

Tea was first introduced to Sri Lanka about 150 years ago when the island was under British control, James Taylor being the pioneer.

Tea is Sri Lanka’s main agricultural export commodity and Sri Lanka is the second largest exporter of tea in the world. Dr. Hayes is a keen follower of the Sri Lanka tea industry as it is reported that his ancestors (Hayes family) owned a tea plantation in Southern part of Sri Lanka.

He was pleased to see more than 100 years old tea machinery and objects displayed at the Museum and commended the efforts taken by Sri Lanka Tea Board and industry stakeholders to preserve a valuable part of the Sri Lanka history. Dr. Hayes said that he would request and encourage the British Tour operators to Sri Lanka to include Ceylon Tea Museum in their itinerary.