Sri Lanka tea promotion in China

The Commercial Section of the Embassy of Sri Lanka in China carried out a series of activities targeting an intense promotion of Ceylon Tea in the Chinese market.

China has been identified as a very promising immerging market for tea with the younger generation showing a taste for value added teas from Sri Lanka.

In early October a promotional event was held for the Commonwealth Society of Beijing, when wife of Ambassador Karunatilaka Amunugama in her capacity as the Asia Regional Representative of the Society, hosted the members for a monthly meeting at the "Residence".

During the meeting Sri Lanka tea with different favours were served and token packs were distributed giving a description of the unique blend of Ceylon Teas coming from distinct geographical areas.

A tea promotional drive was also held in the port city of Tianjin, in northern China during early October, national holiday season at the "World Global Village and International Shopping Festival'.

This promotional event mainly targeted the direct consumer and was described by the participants as an awareness creation exercise, which has attracted a fair demand for Sri Lanka tea. Introducing Ceylon Tea was a novel experience to this part of China.

Then from October 14 to 17 the tea industry participated at the China Tea Expo 2007, held in Beijing. The significance of this event was that Sri Lanka participated in the tea competition depicting a traditional Sri Lanka family demonstrating the making of "Ceylon Tea" using various methods of preparation and consumption using ginger and juggery.

A simultaneous presentation in Chinese was made on different varieties of tea coming from different geographical areas. Sri Lanka won an award for the best cultural presentation.

The participating companies were happy with the enthusiasm shown for Sri Lanka tea.