Lanka to maintain tea quality

Sri Lanka will not compromise on quality of Sri Lankan tea as per Government policy, Plantation Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said.

The Tea board will invest more this year on tea promotion in Russia, he said at a Dealers Convention event organized by Imperial Tea Exports at Cinnamon Grand Hotel Colombo on Friday.

The Minister said the Government is committed to capture new markets for tea while regaining the market share lost during the crisis period.

Imperial Tea Managing Director Jayantha Karunarathna said the company will increase its market share by 40 percent in 2011.

He said the dealer convention is organized to educate Russian dealers on value added tea and also to improve the relationship between the two countries.

He hoped that they will go and speak about our culture and people which will encourage their people to visit Sri Lanka. Russian Ambassdor Vladimir Mikhailov said Russia will become a member of the WTO this year and lot of trade barriers will be cleared which will benefit Sri Lanka.

Imperial one of the largest Value Added Branded Tea Exporters from Sri Lanka to Russia invited forty regional distributors in Sri Lanka along with their exclusive distributor in the Russian Federation namely Sapsan and Company.

The group visited their state-of-the-art production facility to see first hand the manufacture of the tea bags, packets and the gift range of Impra brand teas being processed.

The Russian distributors were able to see the quality assurance measures in place and the conformity to hygienic manufacture untouched by hand.

The convention included tea tasting sessions, in-house product development, laboratory testing measures, presentations on health benefits of tea, marketing strategies covering media advertising, merchandising and other below the line activities to expand market share and enter hitherto uncovered regions. RK