Top tea producers’ meet in Colombo today

The Plantation Industries Ministry and the Sri Lanka Tea Board will host the first ever International Tea Producers’ Forum in Colombo, today at Cinnamon Grand Hotel. Sri Lanka as the current chair of the FAO/IGG on tea and host the proposed ministerial level meeting of tea producing countries for the establishment of the International Tea Producer's Forum (ITPF), a release said.

Sri Lanka is the venue for one of the most important events in the global tea industry, providing a prestigious platform for joining all major producing countries to establish ITPF.

This is a historic achievement which was advocated by Sri Lanka, Kenya and India with support from other tea producing countries. After almost a decade and half most tea producing countries have come on-board showing commitments for a common goal.

The formation of a dedicated association or grouping for tea producing countries to discuss issues related to tea growing and production has been an important need for many years.

The lack of an international body specifically established to deliberate on matters of significance to the industry in tea producing countries has resulted in substantial setbacks to the sector.

Such an organization was conceived of in Sri Lanka, during the late 1990s and a renewed attempt to foster such a collective effort by tea producing countries was initiated in 2006 in Nairobi, Kenya, during the 17th Session FAO/IGG on Tea.

The proposal was subsequently discussed at various global platforms pertaining to tea.

Eventually, the discussion at the 18th Session of the Food & Agricultural Organization/Inter-governmental Group (FAO/IGG) on tea in Hangzhou, China in 2008 culminated in several tea producing countries, including Sri Lanka, signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish an International Tea Producers’ Forum (ITPF).

The tea producing nations showed a sincere enthusiasm to implement the action plan set out in the MoU during the Inter-sessional Working Group on Tea held in Mombasa, Kenya in July 2011 and the 20th Session of FAO/IGG concluded in Colombo, in January/February 2012. Having reviewed all relevant documentation, an informal meeting of delegates of tea producing countries on the sidelines of the Session in Colombo was chaired by Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe.

Soon after the deliberations, a resolution was agree upon by delegates of ten tea producing countries to proceed with the formation of ITPF. It was decided to invite all tea producing nations to have a meeting at Ministerial level to discuss future steps.

Accordingly Plantation Industries Minister invited Bangladesh, Burundi, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania, as delegations from those countries attended the 20th Session in Colombo, and have already subscribed to the resolution. In addition other major tea manufacturing nations namely, Argentina, Vietnam, China and Uganda were also invited to join the establishment of an ITPF.

The Ministers in charge of tea in India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania have already confirmed the proposal to proceed with the ministerial level meeting. Brundi, Bangladesh, Argentina, Vietnam and China have also responded positively to support this initiative and to strengthen the establishment of ITPF and the collective effort by the tea producing countries.

The proposed ITPF which consists of all major global tea producers will create a platform for exchange of views for the advantage of tea producers and to formulate strategies for deriving common benefits to all producing countries.