Ceremonies to commemorate 150th anniversary in May:
The government must re think of the strategy to discourage the use of chemical fertilizer for the tea industry say the Minister of Plantations, Navin Dissanayake.
Speaking at the launch of the 150th anniversary celebrations of the SriLanka tea, he said that banning of weedisides will create a major issue for the plantation industry. “They are needed for commercial agriculture and the people from the top that speak about the discontinuation of chemicals for commercial agriculture should be realistic,” he said.”
One must remember that the tea industry accounts to around US$ 1.5 billion revenue to the country and is the fifth biggest foreign exchange earner.
The Minister said that after several years the tea industry is witnessing the light at the end of the tunnel. “We see the international markets prices increasing again and locally a green leaf which was sold at Rs. 360 per kilo in 2014 in now fetching a price of Rs.560.Several factors have contributed for this and the government alone can’t take credit for this.
Colombo Tea Trader’s Assoction Chairman Anslem Perera said that to commemorate the 150th anniversary a series of global and local events are being held. One event is the global tea party that is being celebrated all over the world on May 18 where all the Sri Lanka embassies will host this event at 5 p.m. Maliban Biscuits will sponsor this event.
In addition a Colombo tea convention, commemorative stamps, coins, regional education programmes to woo workers, along with a plaque being unveiled in memory of the founder of Sri Lanka tea, James Taylor will take place. He also said that today over 2 million people are involved in the tea sector representing several areas like from estate workers, packaging to transport and shipping.
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