Global tea promotion to kick off in October
Sri Lanka’s long overdue global promotional campaign for tea will kick-start this October at a cost of over Rs.5 billion to be spent on television and digital media advertising for the next two years. Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) Chairman Rohan Pethiyagoda told the Business Times that they would market Ceylon Tea as a brand that would be strengthened worldwide. In this regard, the industry is still working on identifying areas within the seven regions in the world to market Ceylon Tea. Ceylon Tea will enter new markets in Western Europe like Germany, which buys higher value tea, and China that has been growing by 30 per cent as part of the massive promotional drive for the next two years. Sri Lanka is currently facing adverse choices from the markets it sells to like Turkey, Russia and Iran due to their own tight economic situations.
In the wake of these developments and bowing to industry demands blending of teas in Sri Lanka will be permitted as long as it is different from the local teas, he said. On the issue of tea imports for blending which has stirred a lot of debate, Mr. Pethiyagoda noted that they would not completely open the door for blending of teas. On the other hand, the concept of blending with imports will happen based on the condition that it must be different from Sri Lanka tea. In this regard, he explained that the Tea Commissioner would be asked to analyse the teas brought into the country for blending to certify that this variety was not produced in the country. However, once blended with the Sri Lanka tea it would not be allowed to be marketed as Ceylon Tea either, Mr. Pethiyagoda said.