Tea sector gets Rs. 109 m for brand promotion

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

The Ministry of Plantation Industries has allocated Rs. 109 million for the tea industry to sustain its leadership as a quality tea supplier to the global market.

Ministry Secretary J Abeywickrama said these funds will be utilised for uni-national promotion, trade fairs, brand promotion, generic promotion, Lion Logo registration and local promotion.

He said the Sri Lanka Tea Board which is responsible for the supervisory functions of the tea industry in Sri Lanka has performed positively in 2007 with some significant achievements.

An incentive scheme for value added tea with the Lion Logo is inplace under the brand promotion scheme.

Action has already been taken to disburse Rs. 30 million allocated for the purpose to exporters eligible based on the exports during 2006. The analytical laboratory of the SLTB was upgraded introducing microbial and pesticide analysis, in addition to the chemical analysis.

A new building for the laboratory has been constructed and equipments for pesticide analysis worth of Rs. 27 million are being procured. Establishment of Market Intelligence and Resource Division (MIRD) and the introduction of Good Agricultural Production (GAP) and Good Manufacturing Production (GMP) to determine national standards are among those achievements.

The SLTB hopes that tea growers, manufacturers and exporters would be able to achieve international quality standards economically satisfying consumer preferences while achieving optimum return on their investments for the product through factory modernisation.

Provision of easy access to affordable up-to-date market intelligence for the benefit of the industry and reviewing legal framework to meet with the present day and future needs of the industry are on the calendar for the coming year, according to the Ministry sources.