Tea industry:

‘Innovation, a must to survive’

by Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

The tea industry needs to market itself in the light of new world trends affecting the trade. With Sri Lanka producing only a fraction of the total tea produced in the world, the efficient marketing of ‘Ceylon Tea’ is the only way to survive, a front line tea exporter said recently.

“Sri Lanka has been producing tea for over a century. But we are not the most efficient in the production of tea. When compared to other tea-producing countries, our product per acre is lesser than many others.

It is now imperative that we go for more efficient methods of managing the industry. If this is done our yields will definitely increase. With demand dropping in the world market we must think out of the box and make our production methods more efficient and market our brands internationally, said Chairman of the Tea Exporters Association and HVA Foods PLC, Rohan Fernando.

The Tea Promotion Fund which now stands at Rs. 5 billion will be used to promote local brands internationally. At present there are forty brands willing to take their products to the international market. It will be on a basis that half the cost is borne by the exporter and the other half by the fund.

The most important fact is that tea must be used to make other innovative products. There are several other products that could be developed which will be value-added items in the market. Isotonic drinks are one of the many tea products that can made and successfully marketed.

“Today we sell an isotonic product made of king coconut water with green tea extract and lemon which is very popular. With the health benefits tea has to offer the innovations are endless,” Fernando said.“Market trends will dip and rise as it always has. The industry now must learn to develop new products and methods of making the industry more productive to survive in the future,” he said.