At this juncture when Sri Lanka has become the third or fourth largest tea exporter in the world, the Government’s ultimate target is to develop this 150- year old traditional industry to the maximum and be the largest value added tea exporter one day, Finance State Minister Eran Wickramaratne said.
Minister Wickramaratne made these remarks at the 123rd AGM of the Colombo Tea Traders Association (CTTA) held in Colombo. Sri Lanka Tea Board Chairman Dr. Rohan Pethiyagoda, CTTA Chairman Anselm Perera and Plantation Industry Ministry Secretary R.A. Ranjith were also present.
Speaking further Minister Wickramaratne said Ceylon tea is still best in the world and said tea still remains the country’s main export and the industry contribute immensely to swell the country’s economy.
He said this industry not only support to uplift the economy but also help in terms of generating employment and therefore it is also the duty of the Government to extend its co-operation towards the industry by supporting tea growers , traders, exporters and all others involved.The Minister also valued the invaluable service rendered by Colombo Tea Traders Association to protect this industry .
Ceylon Tea Traders Association, Chairman Anselm Perera highlighted several issues faced by the tea industry and said a significant drop in the country’s tea production has recorded due to erratic weather conditions, long droughts, torrential rains, floods and landslides.
He said as a result, the country’s tea production recorded a sharp decline and the statistics have revealed that the current tea production fell to a very low 292 million killogramms which is the lowest volume since 2009.
“Another contributory factor to this low volume of production was the banning of the main weedicides ,used by tea producers,”.
He said the authorities banned it without any planning or warning and as a result it badly impaired productivity and increased the cost.
Chairman Perera resorting to manual weeding and said it is not a solution as manual weeding is intensive and expensive. It also get the soil erosion and degradation. Even the labour availability has dwindled down to 140,000 from 400,000 due to various reasons.
He also highly disappointed over certain remarks made by state authorities as well as the Chairman of Sri Lanka Tea Board over the using of weedicide and said leaders should take responsibility for such irrational decisions as weedicide is effectively used in Western countries to get high yield.
The Chairman said “ 2014 was our best year with a record income of US dollars 1.6 billion and it gradually reduced to 1.34 and 1.25 in 2015 and 2016 due to the dropping of both prices and the crop, but we managed to tide through these difficult times by selling tea below the cost of production.
Chairman Perera finally requested the Government to intervene in their problems and remove all non-tariff barriers placed on them.
Sri Lanka Tea Board Chairman Rohan Pethiyagoda said Sri Lanka Tea Board is a large state institution with some 300 employees and it has almost six billion rupees in the bank and they have now been trying to launch a Global Promotion Campaign.
He also claimed that the tea industry is being paralysed by the Tea Board, which is the industry’s central institution, being “strangled by red tape”.
0 comments: