Glyphosate is not available despite the removal of its ban, tea industry sources said.
“Though the ban on Glyphosate is lifted for specific use in tea and rubber a plantation, the country is yet to receive the fist consignment. We do hope that this will be resolved by mind-October to avoid further issues with regard to exports in the future,” said Chairman Planters Association Sunil Poboliyadde speaking at the AGM.
He said that they were made to understand that unless Glyphosate was made available to the growers in Sri Lanka, Japan might very soon lose the confidence they have with Sri Lanka tea and go into the other origins for their purchases.
“The only alternative for Glyphosate MCPA is not accepted by Japan,” he said.
He said the tea industry was in stable position after having suffered a prolonged period of four years with low prices. “During the past year the prices improved to a record high level of Rs. 600 to 700 per kilo. Unfortunately, during the latter part of the last financial year, the prices started to decline again and now they stand at an overall average of Rs. 550.”
There have been many seasons for the drop, starting with the issue with Russia where they detected the beetle inside a container.
“We also have many trade issues especially with Turkey and some other export destinations with trade sanctions affecting the low grown leafy tea market.”
Commenting on the workers he said that they were glad that the unions agreed for productivity based wage structure at the last revision and also to look at a revenue sharing model which needs to be aggressively pursued for the sustainability to the industry.
He said the production of rubber has shown a slight increase but it is way below compared to the production recorded five years ago. “The natural rubber price is mostly governed by the price of Petroleum which has not changed much during the past year.”
Rubber plantations are shrinking and the main cause for this decline has been the diminishing extents of rubber land, and also the climate change which has had an adverse impact in harvesting.
He also said that Palm Oil plantations too are facing an issue as the government encourages the sector and now they are discouraging it without proper research. “The industry had imported seedlings worth Rs. 450 million in the nurseries but is unable to plant them out in the field due to a ban imposed by the government.”
“It has come to a crucial point where there is no solution but to put out these available plants with north-east monsoon rains. Otherwise, the companies would have no alternative but to discard the plants losing millions of rupees.”
Among other critical issue is the ad hoc acquisition of plantation lands. “Most lands lost in the plantation sector are the most high yielding and profitable lands with easy access. We are aware that land is required for housing etc but acquisition priority should be for bare land or lands with low productivity.”
Meanwhile Chief Guest Minister of Labour Relations Ravindra Samaraweera said that as the industry faces challenges from the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the planters must take advantage of the opportunities that would come in the form of automation and digitization to improve productivity.
He however said that the industry will never be able to do away with the human element. He also appealed to the industry stake holders to look after the people who work on estates to ensure the highest standards of welfare in estates for the workers.
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