Russia to boost tea market

Entry into WTO to have favourable impact:

Indunil Hewage

Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization will have a favourable impact on the Sri Lankan tea industry by creating a much satisfied level playing field, Plantations Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said.

Russia , being the single largest buyer of Ceylon tea is capable of creating new avenues for the local tea industry and the Sri Lankan government is facilitating all tea industry stakeholders to achieve foreseeable targets in the industry, he said.

The Minister remarked that with Russia’s entry to the WTO, there will be changes in various duty regimes in the tea industry in the coming years.

He expressed confidence that Russia will be able to bring down duty on value added tea exports from Sri Lanka to Russia from the present 20% to 12.5% in the coming years.

The present quantum of value added tea exports from Sri Lanka to Russia is 20 % while 68 to 70 % is being exported in bulk form.

According to the minister, Sri Lanka is on an aggressive marketing plan to increase the ‘Ceylon Tea’ market share in Russia and will organize many events starting from next year to achieve this target.

He also reassured that the proceedings of the US $ 50 million fund which is to be formulated by charging a Rs 3.50 levy on 1 kg of tea will be utilized to promote value added tea in the international market.