Some 2% of Sri Lanka’s tea lands to brew coffee
Sri Lanka’s tea plantations are seeing a gradual shift in production towards coffee cultivation as production in Ceylon tea declines and coffee demand picks up.
Currently plantations are seeing about a 1-2 per cent of the estates being converted to coffee as tea is receiving a gradual decline in demand.
Based on latest consumption trends it has been found that while the demand for tea is on the decline, the demand for coffee is seeing an increase.
In this respect, the Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) are also considering moving in this direction.
Moreover, with the ban on chemical fertilizer and Glyphosate the industry has been left with a significant impact on its production that has been on the decline. This production drop has been aggravated due to the current climate trends as well.
Industry veterans point out that despite the world’s taste for coffee is already set from its availability from a number of other countries, Sri Lanka can still offer high quality product.
“Our coffee is very good since we have the same advantages like that for tea and in this respect the quality and flavour are also of a high standard that will be picked up by consumers the world over,” one official noted.
Although the current extent of the crop cultivated is only about 2 per cent of the tea, however the industry states that since it will take some time to grow it will be picked up and will subsequently become a major crop.
Sri Lanka has been known the world over for its renowned Ceylon tea, however, the lands on which tea is cultivated was first allocated for the establishment of coffee plantations.
With coffee requiring less labour and since most RPCs are finding it hard to retain the workers on the plantations for work to pluck teas, the cultivation of coffee will be a more viable prospect in time to come.
When the lease agreements were entered into between the government and the RPCs back in 1992 there had been no firm commitment made solely for the cultivation of tea on these estates.
This would mean that the export crop cultivated should be a profitable venture that could be grown to ensure that the country could generate a revenue from its exports.
Consequently, Sri Lanka’s coffee exports have increased in recent years, recording a massive growth of 84.2 per cent from US$192, 198 in 2017 to reach nearly US$354, 125 by 2019 according to the Export Development Board (EDB) statistics.
At present Sri Lanka exports whole bean and pre-ground coffee from both Arabica and Robusta varieties.
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