18 kg in just one hour at Hayleys Best Tea Plucker Competition
View(s):Talawakelle Tea Estates (TTEL) made history after the company emerged as overall winners at the inaugural Hayleys Plantations Best Tea Plucker Competition 2020.
KVPL Gold winner Kamaleshwari of Robgill Estate with Hayleys Chairman and Chief Executive Mohan Pandithage and Hayleys Plantations Managing Director Dr. Roshan Rajadurai.
TTEL’s victory was sealed by the Bearwell Estate Tea Harvester Palaniselvi who plucked an incredible 9.7kg of prime tea in just 30 minutes – amounting to a harvesting rate of 19.4 kg per hour (kg/h) – and topping the judges’ rankings with a score of 88.63 per cent.
Celebrating her outstanding efforts, Hayleys Plantations will be providing Palaniselvi and four of her family members with an all-expenses paid tour to India as well as an immediate cash-prize of Rs. 40,000 over and above the title of Best Tea Plucker at TTEL and across the Hayleys Plantations group for 2020, the company said in a media release.
“I am so happy to have won the competition and I want to thank our managers, Mr. Roshan Rajadurai and Hayleys for giving us extra training on how to improve our harvesting and the chance to take part. My family and friends have been supporting me and giving encouragement throughout and we are all extremely excited to take our first ever flight and trip to India,” Ms. Palaniselvi said.
The preliminary stages of the Hayleys Plantations Best Tea Plucker Competition were held across the three companies – TTEL, Kelani Valley Plantations PLC (KVPL) and Horana Plantations PLC – which comprise the Hayleys Plantations sector.
In addition to the winners of the overall contest, company-level winners were also presented with similar awards, with first prize winners also being provided with a family trip to India and cash prizes, while second place winners were allowed to pick any location in Sri Lanka for an all-expense paid family trip and third place winners were presented with trophies and valuable vouchers for retail items worth Rs. 20,000.
Rounding out the winners list of TTEL were Silver and Bronze winners, M. Pushpalatha for Somerset Estate and A. Iresha Rajalekchumi for Great Western Estate. Meanwhile, KVPL Gold winner Kamaleshwari for Robgill Estate harvested 16.84 kgs/h to receive a score of 82.48 per cent. KVPL’s Silver and Bronze Awards were won by K. Praba of Ingestre Estate and M. Vellapoobathy of Fordyce Estate.
From Horana Plantations, S. Benedict Mary of Bambarakale Estate was the Gold winner with a score of 80.58 per cent and a harvesting rate of 8.45 kg/h, while N. Renuka of Alton Estate and Anandakumari of Gaouravilla Estate secured Silver and Gold Awards respectively.
The uppermost management of the Hayleys Group were in attendance for the finals and awards presentation of the Best Tea Plucker contest, including Hayleys PLC Chairman and Chief Executive, Mohan Pandithage, Hayleys Group Executive Director Sarath Ganegoda, and Hayleys Group Head – Human Resources, Legal, Corporate Communications & Sustainability, Group Security, Darshi Talpahewa together with Hayleys Plantations Managing Director, Dr. Roshan Rajadurai, TTEL Director/ CEO, Dilantha Senevirathne, KVPL Director/ CEO , Anura Weerakoon, Horana Plantations Director/ CEO, Manuja Kariyapperuma, and the Directors and Corporate Management team of Hayleys Plantations Sector.
Each contestant’s harvest was measured and evaluated by an expert panel of Tea Research Institute scientists after being weighed on the real-time digital weighing scales system developed and introduced by Hayleys Plantations. Harvests were then ranked based on the quantity and quality of each harvest as well as the condition of maintenance on tea bushes after the harvests were completed.