Regulations to curb tea adulteration

Suraj A Bandara

The Plantations Industries Ministry has drawn up regulations to curb the adulteration of tea with chemical substances. The ministry will take stern action against those manufacturing adulterated tea, Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said.

He was addressing a meeting organized by the Tea Board at Waters' Edge on Wednesday. Representatives of all tea stakeholders attended the meeting where participants were offered an opportunity to put forward their proposals and suggestions for the prosperity of the tea industry in the country.

The minister addressing the gathering said that some media had reported that the Sri Lankan tea industry was in the doldrums and main exporters had refused Sri Lankan tea. He said that there was no truth in this news.

"The tea industry has showcased a surprising growth in the last six months," Samarasinghe said.

The minister said President Mahinda Rajapaksa had instructed him to take steps to cultivate abandoned lands leased by large scale tea manufacturers for tea cultivation. "With this decision, almost all lands leased were used for cultivation. We have only 15,000 to 20,000 hectares to be cultivated.

"The ministry has taken steps to cultivate all these lands too," he said.

Samarasinghe urged all minor and large scale tea manufacturers to make new suggestions to draft legal framework to prevent the adulteration of tea. "No artificial chemical should be used in the production of tea. Tea should be purely a natural beverage," he said.

"The popularity of Sri Lanka as one of the orthodox tea producing countries is diminishing because of racketeers," he said.

"Though Sri Lanka is ranked as one of largest tea exporters in the world less than 10 percent of the total tea production is used in Sri Lanka. The rest is exported and our tea has won the reputation as the best tea in the world," the minister said.

"Due to the tense situation in some Arabian countries, tea exports showed a slight drawback.

"The situation has developed again and exports to these countries have increased," Samarasinghe said.

An increase of six percent to Tunisia, 10 percent to Iran, 10 percent to Iraq and 11 percent to Syria have been recorded in the last six months, he said. Exports to Libya have come down, he said.

"But exports to Libya will increase once normality is restored in the country," the minister said.