Govt committed to protect reputation of Lankan tea

Disna MUDALIGE

The government has expressed its strong commitment to preserve and promote ‘Pure Ceylon Tea’ and has opposed to a demand of a section of tea exporters to allow the importation of cheap low quality teas for blending with Sri Lankan tea. Treasury Secretary Dr P B Jayasundara explaining the government stance over this demand had stated that the importation of low quality cheap tea to blend with Sri Lankan Tea for export purposes would not be encouraged or permitted.

Dr Jayasundara’s observations at the biennial Dilmah Tea Global Distributor Conference in Colombo which was attended by over 200 foreign delegates on Wednesday were quoted by MJF Group Director Operation Malik Fernando to the Daily News. Dr Jayasundara stated that the government would uncompromisingly preserve and protect Sri Lankan tea and had emphatically rebutted arguments that the relatively high cost of Ceylon Tea prevents local players from competing with international brands.

Dr Jayasundera said that Sri Lanka has a tremendous comparative advantage in tea and can make it a three billion dollar industry in the next 10 years. Refuting attempt to draw a comparison between the tea and apparel industry, which allows the duty free import of raw material, Dr Jayasundera had made it clear that the two industries are markedly different.

He had noted that tea is the opposite of the apparel industry, as everything is locally available, such as, the climatic advantages of growing various types of tea as well as the smallholders who grow over 70 per cent of ‘Pure Ceylon Tea’.