Sri Lanka is to become the leading tea exporter in the World
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- Created on Tuesday, 31 January 2012 12:01
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Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe addressing the 20th session of the inter-Government Conference on Tea organized by the World Food and Agricultural Organization which is now being held in Colombo said yesterday that an important threshold will be registered in the local tea industry this year with the commemoration of the 145th anniversary of the commercial tea industry.
He said that the local tea industry has achieved a significant development after ending the war, and the industry, however, still has some challenges to overcome.
The Minister said that Sri Lanka was able to earn 1.5 billion rupees from the tea industry last year, and the government has initiated several programmes for the development of the tea industry.
The conference has provided a wide publicity to the local tea industry. Sri Lanka has become the 3rd largest tea exporting country and the 4th largest tea producer in the world. The Minister said that it is the objective of the government to re-acquire the position of the leading tea exporter in the world which Sri Lanka held in the year 2006.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Tea Research Institute, Gerry Jayawardena said that Sri Lanka is testing new varieties of tea that have better ability to tolerate drought and disease.
Mr.Jayawardena said new types of tea plants are were required to cater to consumer preferences for food grown without use of chemicals and to adopt for climate changes.
He said that the Tea Research Institute is now coming out with the '5000' series of cultivar which will be released in two years. He also said that the new varieties are now being tested with small holders and regional plantations companies, and the new tea cultivars have a higher yield than existing ones and better ability to tolerate drought, disease and pests. (niz+)
