Ceylon Tea bags mixed hopes in 2022
Different varieties of tea.
Sri Lanka’s tea industry is hopeful of a good Dimbula season in January but hopes are dimmed for the rest of the year as the fertiliser coming in this week is likely to increase cost of production.
“That is the only bright season,” Hayleys Plantations Managing Director and Plantation Association Spokesman Dr. Roshan Rajadurai told the Business Times adding that they cannot afford to lose this season.
When the plant is under stress the quality improves and so the Dimbula season is likely to hold well for the tea industry.
“But there is a tipping point and it is not possible to go over that level and the lack of all chemicals can have a combined effect and lose crop,” Dr. Rajadurai explained.
In this respect, the industry requires the necessary fertiliser and fungicides to keep the industry going for long. “We have made our representations to everybody and even written to the President,” he said.
It will become overwhelming with the ban on glyphosate that will see a repeat of the 2018 fiasco when the fields were getting weeded and workers will be reluctant to report to work and there will be less crop and less earnings and higher costs involved.
He noted that the fertiliser brought in which is Sulphate of Ammonia (SOA) has only 16 per cent of nitrogen whereas the previous fertiliser they used to apply contained 46 per cent of Nitrogen.
“It’s a wasteful exercise,” he said adding that there is no logic in doing this as now they would have to employ three times the workforce and increase the amount of fertiliser added to the crop in a bid to extract the adequate yields.
Moreover, he pointed out that despite protests by estate workers that they are not paid the right wages the Regional Plantation Companies are making the necessary payments accordingly.
He noted that the estate worker unions did not want to adopt the good model that is being employed on some plantations as a result of which they continue to be paid this Rs.1000.
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