Bartleets weekly tea surveillance

A total quantity of 6.148mkg arrived at the Colombo Auction this week as compared with a similar quantity of 6.15 mkg last week. Some 0.79 mkg of the total consisted Ex-Estate teas.

Very Tippy teas weakened during this week’s sale due to exceedingly selective buying from Iran.

Meanwhile, the CIS and Dubai played a comparatively moderate role in the Tippy market that finished the day at a overall higher level from last week.

The Leafy-grade teas met with strong demand whilst the Pekoe grades continued to decline. The wiry types in particular were in high demand and gained by margins of between Rs 10 to 15 during the sale.

Dubai, Germany, Syria, Turkey and the CIS countries were a driving force in the market. It is forecast that this trend will continue, at least for another month.

This week also witnessed the awarding of the coveted ISO 22000 certificate to the Pettiagalla and Balangoda tea factories. The latter sells its tea under the ‘Tinioya’ trademark that is managed by the Balangoda Plantations whilst the Pettiagalla factory sells under ‘Pettiagalla’ and ‘New Pettiagalla’ brand.

In a pioneering move to capture the increasingly promising global green tea market, Barlteet Produce Marketing has teamed up with Silverland Teas in an exclusive deal that is set to take the green tea market by storm. The details are given overleaf.

The count-down to the International Tea Conventions to be held in Colombo is also now well-under-way with just twenty days remaining.

The prestigious event is to be held at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Colombo from August 29 to September 1 and it will be hosted by the Colombo Tea Traders’ Association along with the Sri Lanka Tea Board.

Following a welcoming ceremony on August 29 at 7 pm, the inaugural session is set to kick-off at 8.30 am on the following morning on the theme of ‘Sustainabilitea’ through sound agricultural practices.

Other sessions will focus on equally important issues like the ‘Emerging Global Standards’, ‘Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility’, and ‘Sustainabilitea Across the Value Chain’.

The sessions will features numerous experts including the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tea Research Board, Directors from the leading Plantations companies, high ranking officials from the Planter’s Associations and the Smallholder’s Association, international players representing the Tetley Group, Syngenta, representatives for the Kenya Tea Development Association as well as foreign experts from East Africa, Europe and India.

In a pioneering move to capture the increasingly promising global green tea market, Barlteet Produce Marketing has teamed up with Silverland Teas in an exclusive deal that is set to take the green tea market by storm.

On-time delivery of purchases and the expediting of achieving ISO and HACCP food certification are just some of the anticipated outcomes of the new agreement.

Silverland are already the island’s largest green tea producer with two tea factories focusing on producing high quality green teas from the Kandy district.

The Elpitiya factory is rolling out a range of green tea premiere grades that will include Gun powder special, Gun powder, Chummee, Young Hyson and a Fannings grade to be used for tea Bags.

This factory commenced operations in 1996 and has an annual production capacity of between 100,000kgs to 700,000kgs.

Meanwhile, the Sevalihill tea factory has been producing the same range of premiere grade since inception in 2003. Annual green tea production at this factory is in the range of 10,000kgs to 300,000kgs.

The company has stated its vision as giving a ‘top quality green tea product to the export market at a very competitive price’.

Its mission is ‘to remain the largest producer of green tea in Sri Lanka’ whilst its core value is to ‘provide employment to a larger section of rural people and to look after their welfare’. Silverland is currently in the process of achieving the HACCP and the ISO certificates.

The take-off in demand for green tea is based on a large number of scientific studies that have served to prove a positive connection between its consumption and good health.

Weight loss, skin rejuvenation, aging deterrence, lowering of cholesterol, lowering of hypertension, controlling diabetes, preventing tooth-decay, stress reduction, fighting common cold and curing a ‘hang-over’ are just some of the accolades that are attributed to green tea drinking.

A 2006 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that “Green tea consumption is associated with reduced mortality due to all causes and due to cardiovascular disease but not with reduced mortality due to cancer.”

Similarly, a University of Tokyo study followed a cohort of 40,530 Japanese adults with a history of stroke, coronary heart disease or cancer from 1994 till 2005.

It found that those in the cohort who consumed five cups of tea or more of tea per day had a 16 per cent lower risk of all-cause mortality and 26 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) than participants who consume less than one cup of tea per day.

The study also concluded that ‘if green tea does protect humans against CVD or cancer, it is expected that consumption of this beverage would substantially contribute to the prolonging of life expectancy, given that CVD and cancer are the two leading causes of death worldwide”.

Green tea production was first developed in China using Chinese clonal stock with the seeds later being exported to Indonesia, Japan and Brazil.

These methods were later developed in India using Assamese clonal stock. It is the Assamese variety that is mainly used in Sri Lanka today according to Wikipedia information.

This is the reason why most of the islands green teas have the characteristic darker colour and a different flavour from the Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian and Brazilian varieties.

However, the names given to the varieties like ‘gunpowder’ and ‘Chun Mee’ have their origins with the Chinese.

Off grades: Liquoring FGS/FGS1s declined by Rs. 5-8. Low grown cleaner backer BMs appreciated by Rs. 4-6. Secondaries same as last.

Met with good demand. Liquoring Low Grown D1s appreciated Rs. 5-10. High grown D same as last week’s levels whilst the D1s showed decline of Rs. 4-6.