British High Commissioner visits Ceylon Tea Museum in Kandy

The British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Dr. Peter Hayes visited the Ceylon Tea Museum in Kandy last month. The Tea Museum is housed in Hantane tea factory which ceased to manufacture tea nearly two decades ago. Built in 1925, the spacious four storeyed Hantana tea factory today stands as a proud monument to the success story of Sri Lankan tea industry.

The Ceylon Tea Museum is a project jointly operated by Sri Lanka Tea Board and tea industry stakeholders with the objective of exhibiting memorabilia, machinery, documents, pictures and objects of historical value to the Sri Lankan tea industry and to exploit the tourism potential of the industry.

Tea was first introduced to Sri Lanka about 150 years ago when the island was under British control, James Taylor being the pioneer. Tea is Sri Lanka's main agricultural export commodity and Sri Lanka is the second largest exporter of tea in the world. Dr. Hayes is a keen follower of the Sir Lanka tea industry as it is reported that his ancestors (Hayes family) owned a tea plantation in southern part of Sri Lanka.

He was pleased to see more than 100 years old tea machinery and objects displayed at the Museum and commended the efforts taken by the Sri Lanka Tea Board and industry stakeholders to preserve a valuable part of the Sri Lanka history.

Dr. Hayes also said that he would request and encourage the British Tour operators to Sri Lanka to include the Ceylon Tea Museum in their itinerary.

Ceylon Tea Museum is one of the best Museums of its kind in the world. Although exhibits are not abundant, they do provide a valuable insight in to how tea was manufactured in the early days.