Planters discuss industry woes

Vishmi Wijeratne

The Planters Association of Ceylon (PAC), at a media round table conference, discussed the industry's forebodings they were experiencing and the path forward from the down turns of the industry.

Chairman PAC, Lalith Obeyesekere said the tea industry was no longer an easy industry to sustain. However he pointed out that this was a challenge the PAC was to undertake and hopefully overcome.

"The tea industry presently had been going through a serious down turn, while the total cost of production (COP) had been around Rs. 334 per kilo in 2009.

It has gradually increased to Rs. 399.25 per kilo in 2011 and Rs. 440.24 per kilo in 2013, an increase by 132 percent from 2009 to 2013," Obeyesekere observed.

He said that there was a serious decline of labour in the tea industry, which was a serious problem. While the daily wages of the labourers had increased yearly, the plantations had to shoulder the burden of not only providing their labour force their due facilities, but they had also to cater to the entire community's needs, as they were highly dependent on the plantation.

"While the wages of a labourer had increased from Rs 353.39 in 2009 to 440 in 2013, if we were to say that only 50% of the plantation community reported to work, we still would have to provide all facilities to the entire labour force, while the other problem being the exodus of the younger generation moving away in search of greener pastures due to the literacy rate of the country rising. This too would be an added burden to the plantation industry, due to the lack of labour," he said

As a solution to this, the panel said that they have had negotiations with labour unions in the plantations sector to have a Rs 40 wage increase per person if they would increase their productivity by three to four kilos which would be a 10% increase in their total production.

They also said that though replanting was a timely solution, it was hard to actually implement it as we were having a decrease of labour in the plantation industry.

However, the panel said on a more positive note that the government's proposal to cultivate 37,000 hectare of land had actually brought out positive feedback as most of these uncultivated lands have been cultivated.

Meanwhile Deputy Chairman, PAC, Roshen Rajadurai, said that they were looking at new markets such as China and Far East Asia as possible markets and would be having promotional campaigns to attract more markets internationally.

"The Middle east was one of our largest markets which was under going lots of controversial issues and we have to look into new markets. So we could say that we are tackling the challenge and trying to sustain the industry.