Financial Times

Stiff penalties for illegal, sub-standard tea exports

Fines of up to a million rupees would soon be imposed on exporters who ship sub-standard teas under proposed amendments to rules governing exports of Ceylon tea.

"We're going to frame regulations that will enable severe punitive action against those who try to ship illegal, sub-standard or contaminated teas and tarnish the image of the product," said Tea Commissioner H.D. Hemaratna. "We have proposed fines of up to a million rupees against those who break the rules."

Right now the only action that the Tea Commissioner's Division can take is to destroy such teas when they are detected during pre-export screening.

The Tea Commissioner's Division is the regulatory arm of the Sri Lanka Tea Board which conducts checks starting from the green leaf intake into the factories to exports to ensure that quality is maintained and teas conform to the required standard.

The tough penalties can be imposed once amendments to the Tea (Tax and Control of Exports) Act No. 16 of 1959 - the law governing tea exports - are passed by parliament and work posts in the division are strengthened, Hemaratna said in an interview. The industry is also trying to combat the sale of sub-standard teas in the local market for what is known as "loose" tea. "Overseas consumers can drink good Ceylon tea but local consumers sometimes are sold bad tea," Hemaratna said.
The Food Act and public health inspectors are to be used to ensure local consumers get good tea by random sampling and testing of local teas, he said.