Bogawantalawa tea Estates takes back Anhettigama Estate from Aspic
Thursday, 3 October 2013 00:00
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Bogawantalawa Tea Estates PLC took back Anhettigama Tea and rubber estate from Aspic. As far back as 2006 BTEL under an operating agreement with Aspic transferred the Anhettigama estate consists of 860 hectares to Aspic for management and development.
“After taking over from Aspic, we have now embarked on accelerated tea and rubber replanting program using estate workers transferred back to Bogawantalawa,” said Manager/HRD Samudhra Waidyatilleke.
He further said that BTE has a joint venture with Lalan Rubbers to manage and develop Miyanawita and Dabar Estates totaling 910 hectares on profit sharing basis. “Thus we have ventured into rubber estate management and development in addition to tea estates as well,” he added.
As for tea, Illuktenne Tea Factory, Deraniyagalla owned and managed by BTE fetched the highest price of Rs. 860 per kilogram for its FBOP grade at the Colombo auction held on 1 October 2013.
BTEL manages 11 high grown estates coming under the golden valley of Ceylon Tea and produce some seven million kilos of high grown tea per annum. Bogawantalawa estate has fetched the highest price of Rs. 490 per kilograms for its Fannings 1 invoice sold at Colombo auction on 25 September 2013. The same estate fetched the top price of Rs. 650 per kilogram for its BOP Fannings invoice sold at the previous week’s sale
According to General Manager/ Marketing Dushan Ratwatte, Bogawantalawa teas are much sought after by discerning tea connoisseurs’ world over. In addition to Bogawantalawa garden mark, it has some unique Brands such as Loinorn, Norwood, Kotiyagalla, Bridwell and Campion all coming under the “Golden Valley” of Ceylon Teas. Approximately 80% of the teas are bought by some fifty discerning buyers. These include Lipton/Unilever, Dilmah and Mitsui through Heritage Teas, Coca-Cola through Walters Bay, US and Tetley’s through Tea Tang etc.
Ratwatte added: “This goes on to prove that tea value addition is not just packaging or making tea bags with or without artificial flavours, but about meeting the end customers’ needs by delivering superior product quality.
“The continued commitment demonstrated by our estate managers in the overall improvements in product quality has been the significant contributory factor to make BTEL garden marks highly sought-after teas at the Colombo auctions.”
Manager/HRD Samudhra Waidyatilleke, is proud of the company’s long term strategy of developing its top executives especially estate managers and put in place state of the art tea processing centres in Bogawantalawa.
BTE made the highest ever profit of Rs. 350 million during the financial year 2012/2013 as per the annual report and accounts presented at the Annual General Meeting concluded last week.
