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Ensuring the
quality of Ceylon tea
Can
you describe the role of the Tea Commissioner and your work in ensuring
the quality of Ceylon tea? The Tea Commissioner's
Division is the regulatory arm of the Sri Lanka Tea Board. Starting
from the green leaf intake into the factories to pre shipment, the
Tea Commissioner ensures that quality is maintained. The office
ensures the registration of tea exporters and importers, and the
quality of pre-auction tea, pre-shipment tea and pre and post-import
tea. Several projects
have been carried out to ensure the quality of the tea. It is known
that 30 percent of the leaf in the bought leaf is bad due to post-harvest
damage. Losses as a result of post-harvest damage amounts to nearly
Rs 3,000 million annually. Off grade tea and refused tea made with
the use of damaged and mature leaf is a threat to the industry.
With this in mind the tea Board initiated its second Randalu project,
which was called the "Randalu BB Project" (Randalu Below
Best Project). Below best leaf means the immature and damaged leaf.
Under this project the use of coir sacks in transporting green leaf,
use of vehicles with racks for transportation, the method of packing
tea leaves and restricting leaf intake to the maximum operational
capacity of the factory is being looked at.
How
do you ensure that teas exported adhere to proper standards? Three weeks
prior to tea being sold at the Colombo auction the brokers send
sample catalogues to my division. The Tea Board tea-tasting unit
tests these samples. If there is any suspicion that the tea does
not conform to the ISO 3720 standard samples taken randomly from
these suspect tea lots are sent to the Government Analyst's Department
for testing. If the Government Analyst's Department confirms that
the tea is of low quality, the tea is either destroyed or the brokers
are notified to send the tea to the manufacturer and not submit
it at the auction. This rejected tea could be upgraded at the factories
once again. We also monitor
pre shipment tea. Samples are drawn from tea that is ready for export
and poor quality shipments are cancelled sometimes. The Tea Board
tests pre-shipment tea samples for contamination. If the tea examined
is not fit enough for human consumption, we do not allowed the particular
consignment to be exported. The Tea Board has even opened its Exports
Branch on Saturdays for the benefit of exporters since 1992. The
rejected consignments are destroyed under the supervision of Tea
Board officials to prevent them from entering the local market and
to stop it from being exported. Last year 93,000 kg were destroyed
- the highest in any year - and up from 56,000 kg the year before.
This is because factories were offering more poor quality teas at
the auction. The root cause is that some factories use inferior
quality green leaf. There are allegations
that lime is mixed with green tea, after it is crushed, and turned
into black tea, adversely affecting the image of Ceylon tea? This has been
happening for quite sometime. Raw material is the problem. Investigations
have revealed that off grade tea is sent to some small factories
in another area, leaves are crushed and turned to dust and with
the help of chemicals black tea is produced and sold at the auction.
My officials found this out at the pre-auction tests and removed
the tea immediately. Afterwards we held several seminars to educate
factory owners in areas such as Gampola, Bandarawela and Ratnapura
where our regional offices are situated. The Colombo
Brokers Association has said in a report that some factories don't
have off grade produce? How is this possible? Some factories
don't have off grade tea in their records. It is very surprising.
Factories can produce up to 80 percent main grade teas if they accept
good quality leaf. Off grades should not usually exceed 20-30 percent
of the total. More off grades means more refused tea which are recycled
in the local market fraudulently. Big factories
have a very large outturn and they make big money by declaring only
main grade teas, which attract higher prices at the auctions. These
factories silently dispose of their undeclared off grade tea to
other small factories. It is apparent in the records of these small
factories that they have produced more than the maximum capacity
of production. Under the Tea Control Act No 51 of 1957, I have full
authority to cancel the license of these factories based on the
manner of operation. In 2002 we cancelled the licenses of 74 factories.
About a million kilos of substandard, illegal teas are recycled
annually. The Tea Board
has intensified checks because if any substandard teas are exported
it could tarnish the image of Ceylon tea. Another reason
licenses are cancelled is because of nonpayment to small holders.
Some factories take a massive intake of green leaf and till the
tea is sold they borrow money from the broker at an interest rate
of 30 percent, which they use for many things but not to pay small
holders. Small holders who have no bargaining power remain silent.
Once it is reported to the Tea Commissioner's division I try to
recover the money from the broker. The broker says the tea has not
been sold at the auction. At this point I cancel the license or
suspend the factory to prevent further transactions between the
small holder and the factory owner. Certain tea
factory owners have paid two rupees less to green leaf suppliers
violating the Reasonable Price Formula under which 68 percent of
the price earned for black tea must be paid to small holders who
supply the leaf. This is a result of cash flow problems created
by reduced demand for Ceylon tea at the Colombo auctions because
of fears of war in the Gulf. I have been
informed about this grave problem and I have already taken action
to ensure proper payments are made. The Attorney General has fully
endorsed the powers entrusted to me by the Tea Control Amendment
Act of 1993. I have written to the defaulting factory owners asking
them to pay the due amount to the smallholders, either directly
or by remitting the money to the Tea Commissioner's account. If
my directions are not carried out I have the power to cancel or
suspend their licenses. That's unnecessary right now as several
defaulting factory owners have paid up. Three tasks
forces were established to review the current status of the tea
industry, especially regulations, and recommend improvements? These task
forces are the Quality Task Force, Process Task Force and Regulatory
Review Task Force (RRTF). The RRTF will be looking into the matters
relating to regulations. Registration of warehouses, which store
more than 1,000 kg of tea at a time and the registration of garden
marks are also considered in the recommendations. The necessity
of keeping the existing regulations and introducing new regulations
to govern the industry has been considered. Restrictions on the
number of garden marks that can be registered by the Tea Board have
been removed. (Garden marks are a form of trade mark or brand name
under which factories sell teas. Each estate may have three or four
garden marks). The task force
has recommended manufacturers should now obtain some sort of approval
from the Colombo Tea Traders' Association (CTTA), rather than the
Tea Board, if they want to get any additional marks. Garden marks
are not registered with the Trade Marks and Patents Registrar but
earlier they used to get Tea Board registration. Some regional plantation
companies, which are producing increasing volumes of tea, may want
to get extra marks to dispose of quality tea through the auction.
Also registration of garden marks helped prevent dishonest manufacturers
from getting new garden marks. This happens when we ask brokers
to withdraw their teas from the auctions after chemical analysis
by the Government Analyst found the teas were not suitable for consumption
because they were contaminated, sub-standard or did not comply with
the relevant ISO standards. Their garden marks get blacklisted and
they try to register a new mark but we could check the track record
to prevent this practice. When the whole
economy is focusing on de-regulating what happens to the existing
regulations? What are the regulations they identified as inappropriate? Even at present
there are no delays when tea is being tested for quality. The export
clearance is given within 24 hours to the exporters if they have
conformed to the ISO standards. Therefore there isn't any necessity
to remove any existing regulations. There is a
belief that the import of tea for blending with Ceylon teas and
re-export could damage the image of Ceylon tea? This is a misconception.
Imported teas account for a mere 1.27 percent of Sri Lanka's total
tea production. This is also a move to cater to the specific requirements
of some markets and get higher prices in markets that need multi-origin
teas. This move would only increase the inflow of foreign exchange
into Sri Lanka. What benefits
can the industry reap from the online shopping function which would
be introduced by the Tea Board in the near future? It is actually
a very small quantity of tea that will be sold via our web site.
If the Colombo tea auction could go online or be automated then
it will benefit the tea small holders as at present they have to
wait for nearly a month to get the money for the leaf they have
sold to the factory owners. Will the newly
established Tea Association take over the tasks of the Tea Board? No association
can take over the regulatory work of the Tea Board as it has to
be impartial and transparent with no favouritism or political influence.
The Tea Commissioner is the only party that can carry out the regulatory
work to ensure justice to all parties involved in this industry. What additional
powers do you require to carry out your role efficiently? The laws need to be changed. There are some places in Colombo, which collect the tea, which the Tea Board has instructed to be sent to factories to be upgraded due to poor quality. These places put them back into the auctions with the use of good garden marks. I need more authority to raid these places and bring them before law. These warehouses at Dam Street have the name board saying "Licensed Dealer" but there's no license given by the government. There are no laws to prevent this type of fraudulent activity. |
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