Urgently needed: National policy for tea
There is consensus that the tea industry is in the present plight due to the absence of a National Policy on the Tea Industry, for that matter on agriculture. There are many and different sectors and players involved in the industry and each seem to take decisions of their own without the slightest regard of the consequences on the economy.
In spite of strong pleas by such personalities as Merrill J. Fernando, Chairman of Dilmah, governments have yielded to the pressures exerted by some elements in the tea export sector to permit the import of low quality rubbishy tea from India. This is both treacherous and a tragedy.
The motive behind importing tea is to make the final product cheaper and thus attractive. Sri Lanka has earned a name from the world as the producer of high quality tea. Ceylon Tea was always called Good Tea. Blending with rubbish from India will badly erode and tarnish that image. Sri Lanka must use the brand image to push the tea industry without tagging it to price.
This is a major concern of patriotic elements and the sooner the government steps in and stops the import of low quality Indian tea it will no doubt push the sale of high quality tea as prevailed earlier. Only Assam Tea was able to match the quality and aroma of our upcountry tea. With Assam Tea losing its position Sri Lanka enjoyed the position of being the number one producer of quality tea.
There has been a rapid and pathetic deterioration of discipline in all aspects that mattered in the production process.
Strict discipline at the factory floor ensured that the percentage of refuse tea did not exceed 3 per cent. And there was no threat of smuggling such a small quantity of refuse tea to the market. Today due to the lack of discipline the refuse tea percentage has risen to 15 per cent. As that is substantial, there is a major problem of blending refuse with other tea to reap higher profits. Inheriting good discipline from the foreigners, the tea factories set very high standards. These standards have today gone to the dogs. No one is interested. The problem could be seen as a result of the transformation of the majority percentage of production to the hands of the small cultivators from the disciplined large estates and factories.
Two leaves and a bud
Two leaves and a bud was the accepted norm in plucking tea leaves all over the world. It was from the bud and the two leaves that tea got its required flavor. With the shift of the bulk of production to the hands of the small cultivator two leaves and a bud vanished.
The smallholder eager to get a higher weight for his or her pluck doesn’t care whether it was two (leaves) and a bud or six and a bud, resulting in a disastrous drop in quality. When the tea industry was managed by large factories there were the Kankanies and conductors to ensure that the tea plucker plucks only two leaves and a bud. There were serious disciplinary action if this was flouted, sometimes even losing employment.
At present there is no suitable machinery to ensure that the plucking conforms to the required standards.
TRI has failed
The advisory services of the Tea Research Institute (TRI) have failed miserably to introduce appropriate mechanisms to ensure quality in plucking. Realising this deterioration the TRI has gone to the extent, in recent publications, of advocating three leaves and a bud. This is disgraceful. It shows the TRI is playing into the hands of unscrupulous elements.
There was a time when the tea leaves plucked were allowed to wither. This led to serious damage to the tender tea leaves in the process of withering. Dr. Dayan Keerthisingha of the TRI’s Technology division made a revolutionary contribution by inventing the fluid bed driver. Not only did it lead to better and improved quality but also reduced space and time required for the process of withering considerably. With advance improvement of technology TRI was expected to invent a more improved process in manufacturing but since Dr. Keerthisingha left no significant findings have being made by this division since then.
In the process of the manufacture of black tea, it has to be separated from brownish tea. Trained and competent tea-makers in the factories used to do this separation with their naked eye. Present day tea makers do not enjoy those intelligence competence and capability; hence the factories are forced to import electronic eyes to separate the black tea. A moderate electronic eye costs around Rs.10 to 12 million and that contributes considerably to the cost of production.
Has the TRI at least attempted to produce a cost effective electronic eye locally?
In the early 1980s the Technology Division was bent on improving the machinery used in manufacture. No results have being announced as yet.
There was a time when tea was propagated using seeds from the tea plants. The planter did not have a choice in selecting the seeds. Seeds even from the best tea bush did not carry the qualities of the parent bush. Another revolutionary innovation was made by the TRI: Instead of using tea seeds for propagation, cuttings from selected bushes were used and the process was known as vegetative propagation. This was a revolutionary move with VP tea seedlings being far superior to the seedlings from the seeds.
Planters could select the clones suitable to his estate depending on the climatic and particular soil conditions. In this process over the years the TRI produced over 500 different clones suitable for different conditions.
With the shift of demand from upcountry tea to low growns there should have being new findings and effort to supply better tea clones so that the small cultivator would have benefitted.
No worthy scientists
Unfortunately the TRI is resting on the laurels of the earlier scientist without any worthy contribution from the present scientists. A trained research person who returned after a stint at Indonesia stated that Indonesia was using only the Sri Lanka TRI developed clones and the industry was flourishing with increasing yields.
Even Kenya and Vietnam are using Sri Lanka TRI clones and showing a remarkable increase in yields. But in Sri Lanka over the past 10 years we have experienced a drop in the yield. What has the TRI done to set off this situation? In the ‘60s and the ‘70s the TRI had a batch of dedicated scientists who were worth their weight in gold. Just to name a few – Dr. Dayan Keerthisingha, Dr R.L.de Silva, Dr. R.L. L. Wickremasingha, Dr. A. Shanmuganathan, Dr.L.H. Fernando, Dr. Carl Naido, Dr. Upatissa Pethiyagoda, Dr. P. Sivapalan and Dr. W. Modder.
With their departure, the performance of the TRI reached a low ebb. Those days the scientists in the TRI were engaged in several battles in determining whether insects could be controlled by using insecticides or by bio -logical control.
Dr. Naido of the Hantana Sub Station was carrying on a standing battle with the expatriate staff on this matter. It was even alleged that the expatriate staff were receiving thumping commissions from firms importing these insecticides. No significant progress has since being made. No positive attempts have been made to popularise the use of carbon-based weedicides and insecticides.
As a matter of fact the TRI was not in a position to advise the government not to ban a weedicide that was extremely important in controlling weeds in the tea plantations. With the ban there was a serious drop in production as weeds started competing with the tea bushes. It took three years for saner counsel to prevail, but by that time the damage was done.
Sri Lanka’s tea industry faced a difficult time due to the deterioration in the ceremonial tea pot culture in UK and Europe. There were times when the lady of the house used to entertain guests with tea served in tea pots.
Guests were able to add milk and sugar as they preferred. But because it is a time-consuming effort and with dramatic changes across the world, the tea pot culture gradually dwindled.
Coffee and cocoa as a crop
Customers looked for instant beverages. Coca Cola marched forward to the detriment of the tea drinking habit. To counter this effect the TRI under Dr. Louis Wickremasingha was engaged in formulating an instant tea such as the instant coffee. There were obstacles from interested parties. Even today the TRI hasn’t offered an instant tea formula to match or compete with instant coffee. The research that was carried out by Dr. Wickremasingha was not effectively carried forward or continued.
With the demand in Europe easing, Sri Lanka had to look for other markets. It is here that a balance was struck by shifting to West Asia. The demand was for strong tea, so there was a shift from the upcountry teas to the low country grown teas.
The sector that suffered most due to this change was the mid country tea grower. Most of them abandoned the tea industry, blaming the TRI for not coming to their rescue by at least introducing new clones that generate strong teas.
The TRI had a golden opportunity to advise the mid country producer to diversify their cultivation. Mid country soil is ideal for coffee and cocoa plantation. There is no threat of a coffee blight occurring again in this advanced scientific age. There are enormous avenues to use the mid country in the cultivation of spices for which the country has a big demand. The TRI has failed again to live up to these expectations.
Gone are the days when the TRI was blessed with a dedicated team of scientists who were an asset to the nation. Dr. L.H. Fernando realising the importance of the low country teas made gigantic efforts in starting a sub-station for low country teas at Kuruvita, Ratnapura.
He devoted much of his energy and efforts in developing this station at St. Joachim Estate. He called this his “delightful little station.” At that time low grown teas had not assumed the importance that it occupies at present. The TRI has failed to improve on these innovations of the pioneers.
If the tea industry is to pull back from the present mess, the government has to take some firm decisions. We have a young and an ambitious Minister in charge of plantations. If he is to live up to the reputation and capabilities of his great father the country expects him to act fast and redeem the situation.
The following should be his priorities:
- Stop import of tea from India
- Advisory services of the TRI and other government institutions should be geared to offer advisory services to the factories and the cultivators so that discipline can be restored specially in the reduction of refuse tea percentage and increase plucking efficiency to return to two leaves and a bud.
- Small scale manufacturers should be clustered and advisory officers detailed to them to ensure that the procedures introduced are adopted.
- Planned introduction of crop diversification to help the abandoned mid country growers. Government to offer an attractive package of assistance.
- Aggressive and effective marketing campaign designed to recapture the lost market in Europe.
- Direction and motivation to those at the TRI to increase their efficiency and effectiveness.
I trust that the article will generate a useful discussion on the tea industry.
(The writer worked at the TRI for 12 years before being involved in the garments’ sector for 30 years. He can be reached at cassian130835@gmail.com)