Tea industry could achieve US $ 5 b export mark by 2020- Dr
Jayasundera
Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA
The country’s tea industry could achieve US $ 5 billion export value
by 2020 through increased productivity and value addition. “Sri Lanka
will be a country with an identification and differentiation that could
achieve the $ 20 billion export mark by 2020. I am optimistic that we
could cross $ 5 billion mark in tea exports by 2020 not by doubling our
production, but tripling the prices as volumes could only increased by 2
to 3 percent. Moving away from conflict trap and being a middle income
country, one can look at the future with fair degree of optimism,
Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera said.
Dr. P.B. jayasundera |
“The country has applied some brakes in the sectors of imports and
reserve to boost the production side. We need to go through these
adjustments with optimism and confidence as our economy is entering the
middle income country trap, he said addressing the 118 Annual General
Meeting of the Colombo Tea Traders Association held last Friday in
Colombo.
The way forward to achieve $ 5 billion is that by becoming high in
productivity and quality driven up market exports. Sri Lanka needs to
define boundaries clearly and start branding rather than importing tea.
The country should process the entire value chain to derive economic
benefits.
As against exporting Sri Lankan tea to reach $ 15 billion from $ 4
kilo tea price, good practices, quality control and branding separating
from competitors is necessary. The industry players needs to keep an
open mind to generate results as there are challenges the industry has
to manage and mitigate in the next eight years,” he said.
The country is in term of economy is different at present. Efforts
are needed to lead the world in terms of tea, as tea is rich man’s
drink. This beverage industry has tremendous scope to bounce back
sustaining its richness. With plans to become $ 100 billion economy by
2020, the tea industry should strategize to contribute to the economy is
similar proposition.
Sri Lanka is really on a path of economic growth and it has eight
years of journey as a middle income country. The infrastructure is
coming in to shape. Many projects that were thought not feasible have
been completed including the expressway and reasonable road network. The
business world could do better with sincerity, good vision and action.
We need to achieve growth allowing corrections to take the direction.
The plantation sector by deploying good cultivating practices, correct
techniques and targeting new markets by way of a new model will be able
to reach the targets even before the timeframe, Jayasundera said. |