Tea exports yield record US$ 1375 m revenue

Ravi LADDUWAHETTY

Tea exports for 2010, yielded a record US$ 1375 million where the quantity exported was 314.3 million kilos, Planters’ Association of Ceylon Chairman Lalith Obeysekere said.

Addressing the Association’s 157th AGM at the Galadari Hotel he said it was also significant that bulk tea exports accounted for only 100 million kilos or 32 percent of the total exports, which meant that the remaining 68 percent was exported in value added form, which he said, was a significant step in the pursuance of the government’s policy of enhancing value addition.

“However, this is also to emphasize we also have another 32 percent of the teas available for value addition, he noted. Obeysekere cautioned that costs of tea production were rising at a faster pace than that of the increases in the tea prices, mainly due to the high costs of wages arising from the biennial wage negotiations and the continued low productivity, resulting in the balance sheets of only Regional Plantation Companies being in disarray, while those with rubber fairing much better.

“The situation was further aggravated with the sharp decline in the auction prices, partly due to the prevailing crises in the Middle East,” he said.

He also referred to a diagnostic survey undertaken by the Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka regarding the sustainability of the industry in terms of replanting. With the current prices at the Colombo Tea Auction and the high costs of production it was deemed necessary for the commencement of a replanting programme, he said.

Commenting on the rubber industry, he said prices had been achieved as never before with the main driving forces being India and China where car production had leapfrogged buttressed by the changing global weather patterns.