Good market for green tea now

Harshini Perera

Coffee drinking countries are now drifting towards green tea due to its health benefits creating more opportunity for the Ceylon green tea industry.

Ceylon green tea can look forward to new markets such as Italy, Spain, Mediterranean, Portugal, Canada, Norway and Sweden which were predominantly coffee drinking countries, Melfort Green Teas Deputy Managing Director and CEO Tiran Peiris told Daily News Business.

The green tea export for 2009 was 2,305.5 metric tonnes, a drop compared to 2008 exports which was 3,215 metric tonnes.

He said the decline in exports was a result of the adverse weather condition that prevailed in 2009 and also the higher quantum of imported green tea to Sri Lanka.

According to the World Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the green tea consumption and production will have a growth of 4.5 percent within the next ten years while black tea will have a growth of 1.9 percent for the same period.

“The importation of green tea to the country has been a challenge to green tea manufacturers. Ceylon green tea has the advantage of higher content of Polyphenol (Anti-oxidant) compared to the other origins. We need to be competitive with imported green tea prices to overcome the challenge,” Peiris said. “Ceylon Green tea is currently consumed mainly by countries such as Russia, CIS and Middle East countries”. The USA is recognised as the immediate growing market for iced green tea. Considering the chemical parameters, Ceylon Green Tea is well within the respective norms.