Board to register six tea varieties on geographical origin

Anjana Samarasinghe

TEA: The Sri Lanka Tea Board SLTB will give geographical indications for local teas in the international market.

Acting Director (Tea Promotion) of SLTB Chandraminie Bandara told Daily News the SLTB expects to register six types of local teas according to its geographical origin.

This will enable Sri Lanka to be much competitive in the international market and create an unique identification for local tea. A committee has been appointed for this initiative.

Revealing this year’s promotion plan of SLTB, Bandara said they have planned to participate in nearly 30 trade fairs through their overseas offices in Japan, Poland, Dubai and Russia.

The Japanese office will participate in nine trade fairs in Thailand, China, Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan. Poland office will participate in seven trade fairs in Germany, Swaziland, Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic.

The Dubai office will take part in seven trade fairs in UAE, Libya, Iran, Siriya, Turkey and Jordan.

The Russia office will participate in five trade fairs in Moscow, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

‘We have identified the US market as one of the fast growing markets for iced tea and value added tea. SLTB also plans to take part in World Tea Expo in Atlanta this year.

All these trade fairs are well recognised trade fairs and were selected through strong evaluation, she said. Plans are also made to promote the unique lion logo through radio, press advertisements and billboards in Russia, Dubai, Poland and Japan.

Talking about the local promotions, she said SLTB has organised a programme to promote Ceylon tea among local hoteliers and tourists together with the Hotels Corporation. The SLTB will also organise tea and health seminars targeting housewives.