Industry urges cohesive approach to build and market ‘Ceylon Tea’
Despite retaining nearly one-third of the orthodox tea market, Ceylon Tea industry is still subject to volatility and long-term price stresses.
Industry stakeholders at a recently-held ‘Tea Strategy Workshop’ in Colombo this week made a call to build on its historic strongpoints to develop brands, form marketing partnerships, and move closer to the end-consumer in its target markets in a bid to become more competitive. Dishing out some pertinent statistics on the tea plantation industry, Roshan Rajadurai, Chairman – Planters Association, said that some 52 per cent of females and 48 per cent males represent one million of the resident plantation population. He said that 81 per cent of workers are below 50 years of age and 441,000 reside in Nuwara Eliya district. Also 196,000 workers employed in plantations with 24 per cent in tea and rubber sector and 8 per cent in the agriculture sector.
Discussing the sector’s socio-economic significance, he said that tea and rubber are 35 per cent in extent each by RPCs while tea, rubber and oil palm revenue at estate levels account for Rs. 77 billion. “Across mid high low elevations hundreds of village economies are linked to the plantation economy.” According to him the workforce in the plantation sector was 39 per cent of its population in 1992 and now it’s at 20 per cent, but the wages are at Rs. 48 to Rs. 620 per day pre and post privatisation which is a 13 fold increase in 20 years. He said that these statistics will assist stakeholders and policymakers to understand the future requirements of the tea industry and map-out a plan to ensure its sustainability.
Discussing issues that warrant attention in energising the tea export sector for achieving the target goal of US$ 5 billion in export revenue by 2020, Rohan Fernando, Chairman Tea Exporters Association of Sri Lanka (TEA) said that in a bid to improve quality of tea, proper implementation of GAP and GMP standards throughout the supply chain is necessary as a large volume of tea offered at the auction is not up to laid down quality parameters and most importantly deviating from grade nomenclatures (a system of names or terms). “Strict monitoring and reduction of the number of tea manufacturers may be required in this regard,” he said.
Regulating risky trading terms to create a level playing field for all exporters, expediting the FTA with China and Turkey, simplifying the tax system on tea exports, while granting incentives for use of new technology and product development (tea-based pharmaceutical and healthcare products are growing due to tea containing curative properties) and supporting R&D on new tea products were a series of suggestions he proposed to boost the sector. ”Branding and marketing require substantial investments in overseas markets. At present exporters use their own funds with SLTB assistance which is not adequate,” he said, adding that easing restrictions on import of foreign teas for re-export was also important.