Tea gets access to Iran, promotions start in Sept.
Sri Lanka’s tea industry is taking a number of bold decisions from commencing tea exports to Iran from next month to kicking off its global promotional campaign in September.
Plantation Industries Minister Navin Dissanayake addressing the media at the Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) on Thursday said that Sri Lanka has worked out a barter system of trading in tea for oil to Iran that is to commence from next month.
The minister said that they had already discussed with the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and had confirmation from Iran to carry out this barter system following the trade sanctions imposed against Iran by the US.
The US$240 million debt in purchasing oil by CPC from Iran would be set off against the tea exports, the minister said.
Meanwhile, the $50 million global tea promotion campaign is set to kick off in September this year, the Minister said.
He said the campaign will start in Russia and then move to another 11 countries and is scheduled to be held over a period of three years.
The target markets are Russia, Ukraine, Japan, China, the US, Australia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Chile and Germany.
In another move the authorities have now initiated a scientific method of identifying those factories that contaminate tea during manufacture by adding sugar.
Minister Dissanayake said that currently they have identified about 10 factories and have raided them based on the tests carried out on samples obtained at the auctions.
This initiative carried out by the Tea Research Institute (TRI) has adopted a method of fixing base lines for glucose, fructose and sucrose.
In this respect, tea inspectors are undertaking regular checks at the factory level and any errant manufacturers are taken to task.
In the meantime, the Japanese authorities would be requested to increase the maximum residue level (MRL) of 0.01 to 0.06 level.
The TRI had completed field trial data on MCPA (a weedicide) and negotiations with Japanese authorities to increase the level of MRL has begun, the minister said.
Moreover, the SLTB is considering obtaining funds amounting to Rs.300 million from levies that go to the tea promotional fund in a bid to assist in supply of 15,000 quality nursery plants to smallholders covering an area of 1000H.
The minister pointed out that this would facilitate a production increase in the years to come.
Minister Dissanayake pointed out that though the industry was crying out that prices were low it was a common phenomenon during this time of year; they expect prices to pick up by September.
Further, he said that the measures taken by the government to resolve the issues with overseas tea markets and the launch of the global campaign is expected to strengthen the Ceylon Tea prices soon.