Sri Lankan Plantations are in a highly disadvantage situation, Protem Chairman of the event W. G. Roshan Rajadurai told the Ceylon Planters Society 82nd AGM held in Colombo on Wednesday.
The raw material cost in Sri Lanka is four to five times more than competitor countries. “We export 95% of our product and we have to compete in the world market and despite of those disadvantages our community has sustained this industry and we have provided livelihoods for over one million people,” he said.
The current model of employment is over 150 years old and suited times, five to six decades back than it is today. At that time the British had monopolistic power where they could decide on the price. But since nationalization the world has changed. The British foreseeing this trend went and invested in Africa and built a similar model where all of that tea is imported to Britain.
“So we are facing significant and very challenging times ahead and that is why the planters association is advocating a model of revenue sharing where the employees are encouraged and motivated to work hard and earn more than the amount they desire now. There are lots of estates in Sri Lanka where the workers are earning Rs 50,000 to 80,000 on this revenue sharing or productivity based model, and the existing archaic 150 year old model needs change.”
Rajadurai said planters must have the courage to change this because the current model is not going to sustain. In 1992 when the estates were privatized the labour wage was only 68 percent of a value of a kilo of tea at the Colombo auctions. Today the labour wage is 162 percent percent of a value of a kilo of tea at the Colombo auctions.
He said despite that Lankan plantations were striving and he was confident that the planters will ensure that there will be a sustainable industry for the next generation to take over. “That is way we have promoted a productivity based revenue sharing model where the productive workers can aspire to earn far more than what they are expecting now and it is manifestly clear that it can be done,” he said.
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