Celebrating 150 years of Ceylon Tea by importing tea
By C. A. Chandraprema-August 17, 2017, 9:50 pm
Strange pronouncements are being made as Sri Lanka celebrates 150 years of the tea industry. Prominent economists are referring to "The obsessive love for a non-existent Ceylon Tea in the world market" and leading tea exporters are saying at events held to mark the 150 years of the industry, that the tea industry has now to be funded by the taxpayers for fertiliser, replanting and price guarantees ‘to pacify the large voter base of smallholder farmers’ which now produce over 70% of the tea crop. Such intellectuals and traders argue that the importation of tea should be liberalised so that exporters in this country could import cheap tea from overseas to re-export from Sri Lanka. Thus the discussion in this 150th year of Ceylon tea seems to be about the contribution that Sri Lankan tea exporters can make to develop for example, the Vietnamese tea industry and to finish off Ceylon tea. After celebrating the 150th year, the idea seems to be not to have a 151st year of Ceylon tea.