President’s Ukraine visit fruitful-business delegation

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visit to Ukraine was a resounding success, members of the business delegation who visited Ukraine with the President said. Chairman of the Tea Exporters Association, Jayantha Keragala said that a MoU was signed with the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce to promote Sri Lanka tea in Ukraine.

Ukraine, a country with a population of 48 million is one of our main tea importers and last year we exported 4.3 million kg of tea to Ukraine of which 50% was in bulk form and 50% in value added form.

Chairman of the Tea Exporters Association, Jayantha Keragala signs the MoU with the chairman Ukraine Chamber of Commerce Skripchenko Sergey.

However, promotion of value added tea in Ukraine is an issue as 10% duty was charged on a gross basis. As a result we had to pay taxes on the weight of other packing materials as well. The President raised this issue in his discussions with Ukraine leaders.

Keragala said that though there was no conclusion on the basis of duty on value added tea exports, this matter will be solved in favour of Sri Lanka, soon.

Immediate past president of the Ceylon Chamber of Exporters, Rohan Fernando said that the President’s Ukraine tour was very important in terms of bilateral trade relations between the two countries.

This is the first official visit of a Sri Lankan leader to Ukraine after its independence in 1991. The objective of our trade delegation was to establish relationships with our Ukrainian counterparts.

“Ukraine is a main tea consuming country and one of our major tea importers. My company, HVA Lanka Exporters (Pvt) Limited is doing business with Ukraine since 1995 and our tea brand Heladiv is famous in Ukraine. We got an opportunity to promote our brands and build up trade relations during this visit. We discussed about direct tea export to Ukraine via Odessa harbour”, Fernando said.

During discussions with the President the Ukrainian President said that he will consider removing the 10% duty on Sri Lankan tea exported to Ukraine, Fernando said.

Chairman of Laugfs Holdings W.K.H. Wegapitiya said that he met buyers of industrial tyres in Ukraine and discussed business opportunities. The president of the FCCSL Kosala Wickramanayake said that many business opportunities were identified during the discussions with the Ukraine Chamber of Commerce. There is a market for Sri Lankan apparel as well but we did not have a representative from the apparel industry. We are planning to set up a Ukraine business council in Sri Lanka and we will organise follow up visits focusing individual industries, he said.

GW