FAO’s Inter-government group on tea:
SLTB hosts 20th session
Sri Lanka Tea Board, (SLTB) will be hosting the United Nation’s Food
and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) 20th Session of the
Inter-governmental Group (IGG) on tea from January 30 to February 1,
2012 in Colombo.
At the 19th session held in May 2010 in New Delhi, Sri Lanka took the
opportunity of bidding to host the 20th session in 2012 along with
Indonesia and Malawi.
Through a consensus members unanimously offered Sri Lanka the
opportunity, giving the country further recognition in the global tea
industry. The event creates added significance since 2012 celebrates 145
years after commencement of the tea industry in the country on a
commercial scale.
“We are proud to be hosting the 20th FAO/IGG session. It is a very
prestigious event and this will definitely bring international mileage
to Sri Lanka and the heritage of Ceylon tea. Further, this is the first
international event for the tea industry in the country after the dawn
of peace and therefore it is a great opportunity for us to showcase our
products and our country as a whole.
Today, there is political uncertainty in some of our key markets and
added to this is the global financial crisis which will affect any
industry whose main focus is export.
Being the host of the foremost technical sessions on the tea industry
at this crucial time gives the Sri Lankan experts an ideal opportunity
to share our knowledge as well as learn from other leading tea
industries in the world”, said Janaki
Kuruppu, Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Tea Board.
Delegates from over 25 countries will participate in this year’s FAO/IGG
sessions. Some of the countries include India, China, Kenya, Indonesia,
Bangladesh, Vietnam, Africa, Argentina representing tea producing
countries whilst USA, Canada, UK, Pakistan, Russia and UAE will be
representing their nation as tea consuming or importing countries. The
focus of the FAO/IGG sessions which are held biannually is to discuss
and resolve issues related to production, marketing, pricing and
consumption of tea faced by the international tea industry in a single
platform and discuss the way forward for the next 10 years.
Speaking of the sessions Hasitha De Alwis, Promotions Director of the
Sri Lanka Tea Board said, “It is a very crucial time that we are holding
the FAO IGG 20th session in Colombo, a period where the industry is
facing many challenges. Sri Lanka is a high cost, high quality producer
therefore we are changing our strategy from production based model to a
more market based model this will allow us to create more visibility on
our strategies.”
The United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO)/Intergovernmental
Group (IGG) on Tea which was established in 1969 is a forum where
important policies and strategies related to the global tea industry are
formulated. Its Membership is open to all the members/associate members
of UN who are interested in tea production/consumption/trading of tea. |