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Tea trade struggles
to recover from flood damage Some of the lush green tea bushes that covered the banks of the Gin Ganga in the Galle district have been completely washed away. Others remain half uprooted, leaning at a crazy angle - evidence of the ferocity of the floodwaters that swept through vast swathes of land in this region where growing tea is the main economic activity. Smallholders who produce the low grown teas, for which Arab and Russian consumers have acquired a taste, account for 60 percent of the total crop. "Tea bushes that were uprooted will have to be thrown away and the land replanted," said P.L. Dharmadasa, a smallholder in Hiniduma with a small plot on the banks of the Gin Ganga that had been partially washed away. "The ones that are only half uprooted can be restored." The plot was covered with uprooted tea bushes and fallen coconut trees. Factories that went under now stand gloomy and desolate with mounds of made tea thrown away, the dark liquor running into the ground when it rains. It was the same story in many factories - floodwaters rising so fast that there was no time to save stocks of tea or equipment - only lives."The floods took us completely unawares," G.D. Godagama of Kowulana Tea factory, in Mapalagama, Talgaswala, told The Sunday Times FT last week during a visit to the area. "We barely managed to save our lives." He was marooned with his family for a whole day with no food or water.Godagama's factory and home were both submerged and he had to wade through shoulder-high floodwaters carrying his children to the safety of the factory's upper floor. There, with only two workers available that day, May 17 Saturday - the others having taken leave owing to the Vesak holidays - Godagama tried to move chests of made tea to the upper floor but the water rose too fast. He lost a large stock of made tea and green leaf worth about Rs. 2.2 million. Karunadasa Samarasinghe, a smallholder with just three-quarters of an acre of tea who supplies Kowulana Tea Factory, estimates that it will take three months for supplies to come back to normal. He usually supplies about 150 kg of green leaf a month and had come to the factory to collect payment for the previous month's supplies since he needed money to buy food at the Wednesday fair. Godagama said
he had no funds to pay his suppliers although he still collects
the green leaf from them and sells it to other factories not affected
by floods. "Our most urgent need is working capital," he said. "The floods came in a flash and destroyed in a flash what we had built up over the years. I have 800 green leaf suppliers who must be paid. Many of them lost their homes and belongings and are left with only the money owed to them for supplying green leaf." Most of his factory machinery, including an expensive and sophisticated colour separator for sorting made tea, generators, and stocks of green leaf, fertilizer and fuel have been damaged or washed away. Godagama said
the industry needs to reschedule bank loans at lower interest rates
and extend repayment period to at least 15 years to recover from
the latest crisis. At the Silvery Tea Factory, Nagoda, on the banks of the Gin Ganga, which has a capacity to make 30,000 kg of black tea a month, floodwaters rose almost to the ceiling, said its owner H.K.C. de Silva. He lost about Rs. 3 million worth of tea, and all his machinery and eight vehicles were submerged. "Despite the huge loss I suffered I'm happy to have survived," he said. H.L. Ananda of the nearby Diyadola Tea Factory had part of his estate washed away by floodwaters and earthslips. The unprecedented nature of the floods was evident by the submergence of the New Yasmin Valley Tea Factory, in Tawalama, near Neluwa. This is built on top of a small rise in the ground and floodwaters had risen as much as 30 feet above the surrounding plain. "We did not get flood insurance cover because we never expected floods to submerge this factory which is located on high ground," said Nimal Gamage. He described the visit by Plantations Industries Minister Lakshman Kiriella and officials of the Tea Commissioner's Division soon after the waters receded as a morale booster but, like other factory owners and smallholders, was unhappy with the delay in getting promised state aid. "We need to start completely afresh when we resume production and find new suppliers," he said. A fall in volumes of black tea at the Colombo auctions was inevitable. "We have not been manufacturing tea for two weeks now. After the teas catalogued at the next two auctions are sold we have no more tea on the market and no income from brokers." Ranjith Haputantri of the same factory estimated that 18,000 kg of made tea worth about Rs. 3.5 million had been destroyed. "We're hoping the government will compensate us for the destroyed stocks." The floods came as a double blow to smallholders and private tea factory owners who were only just recovering from the effects of the Iraq war, in which orders slumped and prices crashed. Hundreds of smallholders, whose homes were damaged or washed away, have stopped plucking leaf and prefer to stand by the roadside to collect flood relief doled out by well-meaning visitors. With many factories not functioning, competition for green leaf has fallen with the result that the price of green leaf has plunged. There are dark tales of unscrupulous middlemen exploiting destitute smallholders - a kilo of green leaf, which normally fetches around Rs. 20-26, is now going for a mere Rs. 5-10 in some parts. These leaves are sold to factories outside the region. Smallholders are also reportedly being cheated by being paid less for leaf supplied before the floods, which destroyed their records. |
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