The Sri Lanka Tea Board along with stakeholders celebrated International Tea Day at Kingsbury Colombo last week.
The event was originally scheduled for May 21 but was postponed due Sri Lanka observing a day of mourning to mark the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera said that tea is an important industry as over 2 million people, about 10%of the population depend on it. “It is also the fourth forex earner for Sri Lanka.”
He said that while most of the other industries and forex earners dried during the Covid pandemic, tea still brought in valuable dollars to Sri Lanka.
Chairman, Sri Lanka tea Board, Niraj De Mel said that due to climate variations and other issues the tea production has dipped from around 300 million kgs to 250. “But we are seeing a gradual recovery in his segment.”
“We also saw a reduction of the revenue from exports and this too is now showing a positive recovery trend,” he said.
