Tasting the 'good' of Lankan tea

Tea and the TRI in Talawakelle a great pride :

by Chanuka Mannapperuma

The agricultural sector contributed 19.4% to the country's annual gross domestic product GDP in last decade. Tea is one of the main foreign exchange earners in this country.

Sri Lanka, as the third largest tea producer in the world has an approximate share of 10% of the tea global market, with an annual production of nearly 300 million kg made tea. Currently, Sri Lanka is also the largest exporter of tea in the world, exporting 280 million kg annually about 22% of the world's exports. About 60% of the tea is exported in bulk form and 40% is exported in the value-added form.

When we talk about tea we cannot forget the Tea Research Institute (TRI) in Talawakelle. The function of the TRI is to raise productivity of tea small holdings, estates and factories through scientific research. And continue to recommend.

The fully equipped TRI Building was established in 1926 and presently St. Coombs is the main estate under the TRI. It consists of Advisory and extension service, Agronomy, Agricultural Economics, Biochemistry, Entomology, plant breeding, plant pathology, plant physiology and propagation, soil and plant nutrition, technology, Service Units.

Every one would like to know how we get good quality tea. Head Factory Officer at St. Coombs factory, E.M. Dayarathne explained the process of 'making tea'.

The botanical term for the tea plant is Camellia Sinensis. From the pluckers it comes directly to the withering section, which does the drying system. There we have to wither around 6 hours.

The TRI factory consists of 10 withering tracks. Each track will carry up to 1000kg. From this method 44% of water is extracted out of the tea leaves. It is maintained properly to ensure quality and is tested. He added that they make quality tea with experience.

From this point onwards it comes to the rolling machine, which does the pre conditioning producing enzymes. After that the workers transfer the tea leaves to the Roteven machine which crakes the leaf into pieces.

Thereafter, the tea pieces flow to another huge tray which does sifting. Then the quality tea goes to another tray and the over stock is moved to another place, where it is used as fertilizer for tea crops later.

Finally it is put on the electronic oven which does further drying between 190 F-200 F and if it over flows will have to be used as garbage." Finally tea samples are taken to the testing division and after testing, it is approved and made as quality tea.

He said, Sri Lanka has a good demand for our tea from India, Pakistan, Russia, Middle-east, England and Japan.

He said "in this factory there were seven varieties, BOP, PEOKOE, BOPF, DUST 01, FANNING, BM and DUST of different flavours. Tea is the least expensive beverage besides to water. Tea is a calorie free natural beverage without added preservatives or colouring agents. Therefore, it will not only refresh and revive but also help to lead a healthy life. Up to now TRI has introduced tea, ice tea and tea wine which is of very good taste."

Explaining further about tea cultivation, Jayantha Hulangamuwa Superintendent St. Coombs Estate said, Our estate has 238 hectares and we have 720 workers. In our factory we have only five workers among these.

Harvesting of tea is considered one of the most important factors which affect productivity and quality of tea. Presently, many tea plantations are facing difficulties in adopting proper tea harvesting policies due to shortage of workers.

Consequently, the productivity and quality of made tea has been greatly reduced. Additional cost of harvesting has also escalated due to the increase in daily wages and poor plucker intake.

Therefore, mechanical harvesting is introduced as an alternative to manual harvesting to reduce the cost of harvesting a good quality of harvested shoots.

Different types of mechanical harvesters, manual shears and motorized machines, have been used on trial basis to enhance plucker intake, maintain proper harvesting rounds and reduce plucking cost.

However, such efforts were not successful due to various reasons such as crop losses owing to non-selective harvesting, poor manoeuvring ability, high cost of machine maintenance and negative attitude of users towards such equipment. Nevertheless, many of these disadvantages and problems has been removed by introducing the TRI selective Tea harvest.

chanuka@sundayobserver.lk