1.5 mln kg of tea, factories hit by floods
Sri Lanka’s tea companies have been hit by the floods as a result of which approximately 1.5 million kg of tea have been damaged, a key official said. About 24 tea companies had accrued losses on factory equipment including approximately 1.5 million kg of teas, Sri Lanka Tea Board Director General Anura Siriwardena told Business Times on Friday. He noted that the companies had insurance claims on them and they would be able to recover their losses. Sri Lanka Tea Exporters Association President Rohan Fernando told the Business Times that the companies were badly affected due to the floods.
The TEA has appointed a sub-committee to engage with these factories to ascertain their initial and intermediate problems to ensure they would be able to get back to work. In addition, Mr. Fernando said that they had requested from the Tea Board for a loan or credit facility at reasonable interest rates to ensure these factories would be back on track. In the meantime, the government is set to kickstart its global promotional campaign for tea by the end of October and early November from its key markets Russia, China and Dubai, Mr. Siriwardena said. They are expected to expand to other countries like Japan, the US and Turkey in the middle of next year, he explained.
The Rs.5 billion investment into the 3-year promotional campaign would involve a media campaign covering social, television, radio and the press with above and below the line activities including public relations activities. Mr. Siriwardena noted that they would be conducting meetings with importers of those countries and meeting potential customers and other important stakeholders like the media. In the meantime, he noted that they had recently increased charges levied on adulteration of teas from Rs.50, 000 to Rs.500, 000. Commenting on the enhancement of trade ties between Turkey and Sri Lanka for the sale of tea Mr. Siriwardena said that this would be carried out together with the Agricultural Ministry which is also involved in similar ties. The trade links would be worked out in a few months, the DG said.