‘SL should focus on high grown tea’

Indunil Hewage

Sri Lanka has to ignite the passion for Ceylon tea in the world market, said Janaki Kuruppu , Chairperson, Sri Lanka Tea Board.

Sri Lanka has just been focused on low grown tea and has fully neglected the high grown tea which Sri Lanka is famous for. There is a trend in the world for CTC and green tea, but Sri Lanka is making about 2% of CTC and 5% of green tea, which is very small in quantity. According to Kuruppu, Sri Lanka’s total tea production share in the world market has considerably dropped since 1960s.

The local tea industry currently faces stiff competition from exiting and emerging tea producing countries.” We can’t afford bad stories, bad images as well as quality and standards issues. The geographical spread of our buyers has also changed, we seem to have narrowed down in to few regions when its come to Ceylon tea exports,” Kuruppu said.

Sri Lanka Tea Board strategy is to increase the value added tea that we export in the world market and according to Kuruppu , the value added tea segment in Sri Lanka is growing at a considerable rate. Sri Lanka currently exports about 40% of our tea as value added tea under Sri Lankan brands or as private labels for multinational brands.