Sri Lanka would send a high powered delegation to Russia end of the week to hold talks with Russian authorities in a bid to find a way out of the temporary ban imposed by Russia on Sri Lanka tea imports.
Minister Naveen Dissananyake said that the Sri Lanka Tea Board in Russian and Sri Lankan Ambassador in Russia, Dr. Saman Weerasinghe are currently holding talks with the Russian authorities. “The outcome of these talks would be known by Wednesday and then I will fly to Russia to iron out this issue,” the Minister said.
Representatives from the Ministry of Plantations, Tea Research Institute Tea Board and Tea Exporters’ Association would be included in this delegation. The ban is a result of the detection of a single specimen of an agricultural pest, the beetle, Trogoderma granarium in the packaging material of a consignment of tea shipped from Sri Lanka. While imposing these restrictions on Sri Lanka, the Russian authorities have made it explicitly clear that they are of a temporary nature and will last only until the completion of negotiations and clarification of the situation with the competent authority of Sri Lanka.
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