ISO tea Technical Committee meeting in Colombo

International Technical Committee meeting on tea will be held from June 26 to 28, 2012 at the Galadari Hotel, Colombo.

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is the premier organization engaged in formulation of the standards globally. ISO/TC 34/SC 8 is the Technical Committee responsible for the standardization activity in the area of tea. Sri Lanka is one of the 16 participating “P” - members on this technical committee which also has 25 observing “O”- members. British Standards Institute (BSI) functions as its Secretariat.

This committee (SC 8) meets once every 2 years in different parts of the world and this year Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) agreed to host the 24th meeting jointly with the Sri Lanka Tea Board. SLSI has been associated with ISO since its inception and has already hosted only one such meeting, i.e. in 1997.

This meeting will be highly technical in nature and technical sessions will be handled under the guidance of the Tea Research Institute. Around 40 delegates from 10-15 countries (tea producing countries and tea consuming countries) are expected, drawn from both the private and public sectors.

The three day meeting will address issues relating to the formulation of new International Standards (white tea, special teas), test methods (measurement of theanine) revising/updating of existing International Standards, etc. pertaining to all sectors of the tea industry. Also ISO/TC 34/SC 8 - tea meetings provide an excellent opportunity to the tea industry in the country to understand the various standards being formulated fulfilling the International market requirements. By hosting such meetings in Sri Lanka our country’s interests can best be reflected in international standards.