Tea industry in limbo after glyphosate ban
The government is grappling with several burning issues and one among them is the glyphosate matter that is subdued, at the moment, due to the current high tea auction prices.
Interestingly when Plantations Minister Navin Dissanayake took up the matter with the President of allowing the Tea Research Institute (TRI) to regulate the use of glyphosate, it was asked to be brought before the cabinet.
Once tabled at the Cabinet meeting last month, the Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne had stepped in to state that the Health Ministry would establish a committee to study the concerns and its possible health risks.
However upto now there is no information given to the Tea Board authorities or the ministry on the progress of the committee.
Later a group of private tea plantation owners had approached the key anti-glyphosate campaigner, MP Ven. Rathana Thera.
At this stage it had come to light that the government now has some urgency to resolve this matter as it could be a contentious matter at the next elections.
Ven. Thera had then told the group of businessmen that he was ready to hold discussions with the Sri Lanka Tea Board Chairman Dr. Rohan Pethiyagoda on the subject.
Dr. Pethiyagoda was later told to meet the MP monk at his temple, to which the former refused on the grounds that issues of an official nature should only be discussed in an office and not at a temple.
It is believed that the idea of the meeting was to find a solution to get out of the problem of banning glyphosate as the Ven. Thera himself is said to have understood the gravity of the issue.
Prices of teas at the auctions which are fetching high prices have averted any crisis on the plantation in the face of the glyphosate ban; but should there be a slump it could lead to increased problems for the government, it is believed.