Financial Times

Dilmah tea’s strong presence in Poland

Warsaw – Sri Lanka to many Poles may be a speck on the world map but many link it with tea – primarily because of the role Dilmah has played in popularising Sri Lanka’s only internationally known product.

Walk into any Polish restaurant and ask for tea and hey presto … hot water and a box of different flavours of Dilmah tea are placed on the table. “Dilmah tea is very popular,” a Polish national smiled when told that I came from Sri Lanka where Dilmah is produced.

We visited many restaurants during a six-day visit to Poland and whether in the capital Warsaw or Gdansk, the city made famous by the Solidarity freedom movement, Dilmah is synonymous by its presence.

N. Navaratnarajah, Sri Lanka’s ambassador in Poland, reckons Dilmah has made an impressive entry into the Polish market because it has a good partner here.
“They have done excellent work and Dilmah is a good promotion for our tea,” he said during a brief meeting at his residence in Warsaw.

Dihan Fernando, director at Dilmah’s in Colombo said Poland is the company’s biggest European customer. “We had a hard time at the beginning when we entered the market competing with the others but we succeeded,” he said, adding that they didn’t sacrifice quality for the sake of price and is now the priciest tea in Poland with a 20 percent share of the market.

The firm’s Polish partner is the family of Janusz Witomski, former Charge De Affairs for Poland in Colombo, which also grew along with the way with the growth of Dilmah.

The Polish economy is booming with foreign investment from neighouring EU countries and as far as India streaming in while unemployment levels are low except in a few parts.

From Feizal Samath during a recent visit to Poland

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