TEA Chairman advocates limited local brands to counter competition

by Sapumali GALAGODA

The tea industry is targeting to increase revenue from $ one billion to two b by next year while looking at initiatives. Of the tea produced in the country 88-90 percent is exported, while locally it acts as a major force in the national economy.

The 12th annual general meeting of the Tea Exporters Association (TEA) was held last week in Colombo. Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the chief guest while Secretary, Ministry of Plantation Industries Malini Pieris was the guest of honour.

Chairman of TEA, Niraj De Mel said to build the tea industry it is necessary to start investment funds, buy strong regional brands, explore and experiment the global tea hub concept in Sri Lanka and invest all the marketing funds in one or two strong Sri Lankan brands.

These measures will help improve the tea industry and help earn a higher revenue.

Two million people are employed in the industry and 300m to 310m Kg of tea is exported from Sri Lanka while the cost of production is high compared to other countries.

He said that challenges and threats faced by the tea industry include availability of cheaper tea from other tea producing countries, weather pattern, substituting our tea with low quality tea which has a negative effect.

De Mel said that there are 12 key trends in the global tea market which includes bottom of the pyramid growth, convenience, seeking value for money, brand and retailer driver choice, health and environmental consciousness, penetration and power of supermarket, pack close to point of consumption, multi origin teas, preference for the taste of "Ceylon Tea", Coffee is cool and so is Coke, out of home consumption, lifestyle, indulgence, guilt and theory.

Regularised tea come from North America, Europe and New Zealand. Rough tea comes from China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia. Ripe tea comes from countries such as Russia,Africa and the Middle East.